


Lost And Found

by FridayFirefly



Series: Lost And Found [1]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Background Alix Kubdel/Lê Chiến Kim/Kagami Tsuragi, Background Chloé Bourgeoise/Jason Todd, Background Nino Lahiffe/Jonathan Kent, F/M, First Kiss, Fluff, MariBat, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-29
Updated: 2020-05-01
Packaged: 2020-09-29 21:02:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 26,340
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20442482
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FridayFirefly/pseuds/FridayFirefly
Summary: The thing Marinette wants most in the world is a Soulmate. But no matter how much she tries to convince herself that her perfect match is out there, she still has her doubts. In a world where your Soulmate finds the things you lose, Marinette only ever seems to lose things. In eleven years, she's never found a single thing her Soulmate lost.Until the day she does. That's when it all begins.





	1. The Beginning

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first contribution to the Maribat fandom. The premise of this Soulmate!AU is that when you lose something it automatically appears in your Soulmate’s vicinity for them to find, and vice versa.
> 
> Not Beta'd. All mistakes are my own.

The school library was no use; neither was WebMD. That was why ten-year-old Marinette spent her afternoons on Wikipedia, reading through the Soulmate Anomalies page.

But even in the extensive list of anomalies, Marinette’s case still seemed to be an exception. Even though Marinette loses things (what feels like a million things a day), she’s never _found_ anything before.

“Maybe your Soulmate is just really organized,” her parents theorized, “Maybe they’ve never lost anything before.”

Marinette tried to believe them. She knew that their theory was the best-case scenario. But no matter how hard she wills herself to stay positive, she’s never fully accepted their theory. It’s impossible to never forget where you set something down. It’s impossible to _never_ lose something.

Lingering in the back of Marinette’s mind is a burning question. If her Soulmate is losing things and she just isn’t finding them… then does that mean they’re even Soulmates at all?

——————————————————————

Even though it was obviously hopeless - her favorite gel pen was _lost_ and she wasn’t going to find it by searching her room - Marinette pressed her face against her bedroom floor, shining a flashlight under her desk, hoping to catch sight of the pink pen. But, as she suspected, under her desk was nothing but dust. Just as she was about to give up her search, the glint of light reflecting off of metal caught her eye. Marinette was very curious and slightly afraid. Surely it wasn’t one of the things she lost. If they stopped going to her Soulmate, then that meant that their connection was severed completely.

Marinette stood up and pushed her desk away from the wall, revealing the hidden treasure. _A knife._

Marinette stared at it in shock. How did a knife get under her bed? Tentatively, she picked it up to inspect it. It was beautiful, in a dangerous way. The handle was slim and elegant; the blade was some kind of metal, silver and cold. Marinette knew that this wasn’t a kitchen knife. The knife she found was the kind of knife that was used to hurt people. And for some reason, it was under her desk. Dread crept through Marinette as she made the realization. This was her Soulmate’s knife. They had lost it, and Marinette had found it.

Tears pooled at the corners of her eyes and ran down her face. Conflicting feelings of relief and despair battled inside of her. She knew for sure now that she had a Soulmate, but that Soulmate was the dangerous sort of person that owned weapons.

Marinette was eleven years old when she found her first Soulmate object. She was eleven years old, and she had never been more scared in her life.

——————————————————————

Two months later, Marinette found her second Soulmate object. It was an expensive, black ballpoint pen, with the initials D.W. engraved on it. Marinette felt bad, that her Soulmate lost such an expensive pen, but felt a little better when she remembered all the gel pens she’s lost over the years. If her Soulmate’s been keeping them then they would have enough pens to last them a lifetime, especially since they didn’t seem to lose anything.

A week after that, on the day of Marinette’s twelfth birthday, she lost the brand new sketchbook her parents got her within hours of unwrapping the present (it wasn’t really her fault, she just set it down somewhere to help her Mom decorate the cake, and couldn’t remember where she put it when she was done). Marinette was upset. She had already jotted down a few ideas for new designs in it, and now it was gone. Her Soulmate kept getting all of her favorite things, and all she had gotten from them was a knife and a pen. Marinette walked back up to her room, ready to mope about it when she saw the sketchbook on the bed with a sticky note attached to it, written in English.

_I figured you might want this back - D.W._

A smile broke out across Marinette’s face. She ripped a blank page out of the sketchbook and wrote back.

_Thanks, it's a birthday present from my parents - M.D.C._

As soon as Marinette was done writing, she took the paper up to her balcony, and let the paper fly away in the wind. Once it disappeared from view, Marinette knew it was lost enough that her Soulmate, D.W., would find it.

Hours later, after Marinette ate her birthday cake and opened the rest of her presents, she climbed up the ladder into her room, ready to go to bed. Sitting on her desk, was one last present, wrapped in a different paper than the kind her parents used. Marinette picked it up, and read the tag.

_Happy Birthday M. From your Soulmate, D.W._

Marinette felt her heart skip a beat. Her Soulmate got her a present for her birthday. That was so… so… so nice. Maybe, despite the knives, D.W. was still a good person at heart.

Marinette carefully unwrapped it, planning on putting the wrapping paper in a scrapbook someday. Underneath the wrapping paper was a little white box. Marinette opened it and gasped. A pretty silver bracelet, and a new box of gel pens.

Marinette was so happy she barely knew how to function. She had spent years and years thinking that she had no Soulmate. And now, she wouldn’t trade her Soulmate for anything in the world.


	2. Leap of Faith

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> One man's 'pushed off a building' is another man's 'leap of faith'. Damian tries both.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m super glad everyone liked Chapter One so much! This chapter and next chapter are both from Damian’s PoV. Hope you enjoy!

Damian's favorite thing about living with his Father was that he got to keep his Soulmate's things. In the League of Shadows, Soulmates were considered to be a burden. Under his Mother and Grandfather's watchful eyes, he was forced to discard every bracelet, every pen, every sewing needle, every scrap of fabric. It stung, having to reject his Soulmate like that. The deepest, most instinctual parts of him longed to treasure every piece of her. But he couldn't, not until he moved in with Father.

Now he hoarded her things in a box on the top shelf of his closet. In the seven weeks since he arrived at Wayne Manor, he had found eight pens, three cat-shaped paperclips, two pencils, a tube of cherry chapstick, a set of history notes (written in French), and a shoe (size three and a half, women's). Damian treasured every one of her things.

"Damian, are you patrolling tonight?" Grayson asked from the doorway of Damian's bedroom.

Damian didn’t bother looking up from the book he was reading. "Of course. I don't skip patrols."

Damian could tell that Grayson was frowning without even looking up at him. He knew that Grayson didn't approve of his intense attitude toward his duties as Robin. But Damian wasn't about to disappoint his Father just because Grayson was concerned. "Alright. Be in the Cave in half an hour. We're all going out tonight."

Instantly, Damian's mood dropped. What Grayson meant by "all" was that Drake and Todd would be patrolling as well tonight. Usually, patrols were made up of Damian, Father, and Grayson, because Drake was too busy with his college courses to go out with them, and Todd was almost always off the grid. Unfortunately, in some fluke of chance, it seemed that Drake's schedule was free and Todd was visiting the Manor.

Damian quickly finished the chapter and set the book down on his desk, right next to an orange highlighter. Traces of his bad mood began to fade away as he got the box out and hid away his newest treasure. Now that he was finally allowed to, he desperately wanted to start losing things for his Soulmate to find. But his fear that she would reject him was too much to overcome. After all, she spent the eleven years that he's been alive having never found anything of his before. Would she take kindly to finding out that her Soulmate does exist? One last conflicted glance into the box of her things, and he put it back into the closet, and left to go to the Batcave.

Two hours later, and Damian's bad mood was even worse. Their patrol had interrupted a drug deal between two of Gotham's most notorious gangs, and of course, things went South from there. Todd went rogue, refusing to follow anyone's orders. Drake and Grayson kept getting in Damian's way, forcing him to improvise every other move. In the middle of disarming a man, Drake managed to get himself cut across the shoulder, which distracted Grayson (who was trying to fight two people at once) enough to get him punched in the face. By the time the last of the gang members were incapacitated, Damian was sore enough that he didn't protest when Batman told them all to go home and let him deal with the police.

As soon as he got back into the Batcave, Damian was stripping his gear off, paying much less attention to where his weapons were going than he usually would. That was his big mistake. When Alfred came to the Cave to distribute snacks (Grayson insisted on hot cocoa and peanut butter crackers after every patrol. Damian would normally call it childish, if it wasn't for the look of profound nostalgia on Grayson's face when he ate them) Damian turned away from his haphazardly placed gear without a second thought. 

When he got back to his gear, he noticed that something was missing. "Drake? Todd?" Damian called out to the older boys. "Did either of you take one of my knives."

"No," replied Drake from across the cave. He was in the middle of cleaning the cut on his shoulder.

Damian turned to Todd, who rolled his eyes, "Why would I take your knives? I have my own."

"Then who took them?" Damian snapped back.

"Maybe you lost it?" Grayson suggested, still rubbing bruise cream on his jaw where he got punched during the fight. 

Damian paled as the realization hit him like a train. His _Soulmate_ got sent the knife. The first thing he ever lost... his Soulmate's first impression of him... was a knife. A sharp, intimidating, dangerous weapon. 

Before Damian could fully process what had just happened, Drake started to laugh. "That's just great," crowed Drake. "I'm sure Demon Spawn's Soulmate has gotten used to getting sent knives by now.

Damian gritted his teeth. "No. She isn't... She's never... I've never lost anything before."

The cave went silent. "You've never lost anything before?" Grayson asked. His tone of voice was devoid of judgment, as though he was worried that he would provoke Damian by being too critical.

"When I lived with the League of Assassins, it was not allowed. Now that I live with Father I am uncertain of how to proceed."

"Christ, Damian. You weren't allowed to lose things." Grayson sounded horrified.

"Mother told me that having a Soulmate was a burden. While I do not believe her words to be true, I saw no advantage in contacting my Soulmate while I was still affiliated with the League."

"Your Mom is one fucked up lady," said Todd.

"Jason!" Grayson hissed, glaring at his brother. Damian didn't care about Todd's words. Todd was just vocalizing what Grayson and Drake were thinking.

Silence crept across the cave, and Damian assumed that their conversation was over. He started putting the rest of his gear away. His cabinet was perfectly organized, designed so that everything would fit into their exact spots, so he didn't risk losing anything. The empty spot where his knife would usually go stood out like a sore thumb. Damian shut the cabinet door, eager to get out of the Cave before Father returned. Damian didn't want to face his Father's judgment yet, not before he had a chance to process it all himself.

The walk back up to his room was dead silent. Grayson, Drake, and Todd didn't follow him out, and Damian assumed it was because they were all going to talk about what they had learned with Bruce. He was angry, but more at himself than at them. Seven weeks living with Father made him careless. He should be - he needed to be - more vigilant, more in control. 

As Damian showered off the dirt and blood from that night’s patrol, his anger faded away into bitterness. Of all the things he could have lost, it was the worst possible thing. And he only had himself to blame. It was his own uncertainty that caused such a terrible first impression. 

Normally, Damian didn’t have trouble falling asleep at night, especially after such a rough patrol. That night he could quiet his mind. He would start to drift off, only to be pulled back by the knowledge of what he had done. Eventually, as the horizon started to show signs of the rising sun, Damian simply gave up on his attempts at sleep. Knowing that he would eventually have to discuss what had happened with Father but not wanting to talk about it yet, Damian slipped down to the Batcave to get a few hours of training in. He hoped that it would help to quiet his mind, at least a little. 

The training dummies had no chance of survival, as Damian’s sword (his preferred weapon) sliced through one after another. Any other day he would hold himself back, stop himself from creating so much damage, but Damian couldn’t seem to stop himself. Once the sword was gripped between his hands he was out of control, channeling all the emotions that he had felt in the past twelve hours into his fighting. All of the anger, the bitterness, the uncertainty, the fear, all of it faded away as his training took over.”

“Damian?” Drake's voice echoed through the cave. “Can we talk for a minute.”

Damian stopped midway through a strike and lowered his sword. He hadn't expected Drake to be the one to confront him about it. "Yes."

Drake opened his mouth to speak, and then closed it. Instead, he picked something small and pink up off the ground and tossing it to Damian. "I think this might be yours."

It was a pink gel pen, well used, based on the amount of ink already used. His Soulmate seemed to lose them at an unprecedented rate. "Did you come here to talk to me about my Soulmate?"

"I wanted to apologize for what I said. I shouldn't have spoken about your Soulmate bond like that," said Drake.

"Is that all." Although Damian could tell that Drake was being genuine, Damian still wasn't in the mood to talk about his Soulmate bond with anyone.

"If you hadn't lost the knife on accident, would you have ever made contact with your Soulmate?"

"Eventually." Damian wasn't lying to Drake, he was lying to himself. Every day he wanted to make contact, but every day he feared that it would somehow push her away. Eventually was what he told himself every day, and every day Damian feared that eventually would never come.

"Are you going to continue contact?" asked Drake.

Damian kept silent for a moment. He knew the answer and he knew that Drake wouldn't like it.

_"No."_

——————————————————————

It took two months for Damian to fully reconsider his decision. Two months of Grayson's well-intentioned bothering and Father's disapproving looks, neither of which were what made Damian change his mind. Surprisingly, it wasn't a member of his family at all that made him change his mind. It was a villain.

"The view is pretty good from up here, isn't it," said Selena Kyle, sitting down next to Damian. "It almost makes you forget what a terrible city Gotham is."

The view from the top of Wayne Enterprises was the best in the city, but Damian wasn't there for the view. Damian was there to be left alone. "Why are you here, Catwoman." Damian didn't approve of his Father's _relationship_ with the villain known as Catwoman. He never said it to either of their faces, but he was sure that they both already knew.

"Bruce told me about your Soulmate. I heard that you're avoiding contact."

"So Father gossips about me now." 

"He's worried about you. He's worried that you're going to lose something you can never get back... your Soulmate."

"It's complicated."

"Is it?" Selena challenged. "Or are you just scared."

"You don't understand." Damian snapped.

"I understand being scared, Damian. My Soulmate died when I was seventeen years old. We never met in real life, because I was scared. I didn't want him to be disappointed by the real me. And then he was gone forever." Damian watched her expression of grief fade away as she turned to face him. "I can't force you to do anything you don't want to do. It's your choice. Make the right one."

Having given her advice, Selena was gone, creeping away into shadow. Her words had cut through Damian like a knife, exposing everything he didn't want to admit to himself. He was a coward, scared to contact the person he was fated to be with. He was wrong, but he could fix his mistakes. His mind made up, Damian went home.

As soon as Damian put his gear away, he went straight to his desk and grabbed a pen off of it. After all the pens he had gotten from his Soulmate, Damian figured she deserved a replacement. He took the pen (black ballpoint, with his initials engraved on it. Father had given Damian twenty of them on his first day at Gotham Academy and Damian still had every one of them) and brought it outside, to the edge of the Manor grounds, where the forest began. Without giving himself the chance to second-guess himself, Damian tossed the pen into the woods, watching as it disappeared from sight.

A small smile touched Damian's lips, and for once, he allowed himself to feel hope. Hope that he and his Soulmate would be able to be happy together. Hope that it would all work out in the end.


	3. Making Progress

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Damian makes his first friend and his first birthday present

The evening after Damian made his leap of faith and lost the pen was one of the rare nights where his entire 'family' managed to make it to the dinner table. Grayson and Barbara (Damian used her first name only because she threatened to ram him with her wheelchair if he kept calling her 'Gordon') drove in from their shared apartment in Blüdhaven. They were Soulmates, currently dating and soon to be engaged, if the ring box in Grayson's sock drawer (which Damian found when he broke into their apartment last month) meant anything. Todd came in that morning unannounced, claiming to be "in the mood for Alfred's cooking" (Damian suspected that Todd simply doesn't like eating alone, but said nothing). Drake was free for dinner because he didn't have any evening classes at Gotham University. Stephanie Brown arrived the day prior because Drake asked for her assistance on a case he was working on. Of all the heroes who fought crime in Gotham, Damian was least knowledgeable about Stephanie Brown. In all the time Damian had lived with Father, he had only spoken to Brown a few times and had only patrolled with Spoiler once. However, it seemed that Damian would be patrolling with Spoiler a lot more in the coming weeks. Earlier that day, Brown had offered to remain in Gotham and take Grayson's place on patrols. That way, Grayson could stay in Blüdhaven, instead of driving to Gotham on his nights off at the Blüdhaven police force to patrol.

Selena Kyle showed up for dinner as well, though she made no references to their conversation the night before. Father and Alfred were also at the dinner table, but Damian already knew that they would be there. Damian had lived with Father for almost three months, and he had seen the way that the Manor worked. People came and went; it seemed that the only people who stayed the same were Father and Alfred.

Once dinner started, conversations drifted around Damian. He struggled to find the right words to explain that he made contact with his Soulmate. He felt the need to say it, if only for the purpose of stopping Grayson's constant nagging.

“So when’s Connor coming to visit?" asked Barbara.

Damian turned his attention to Drake, interested in any news about Drake's Soulmate. Damian had yet to meet Connor Kent, but he was certainly interested in meeting one of his brother's Soulmates.

"He's coming over a week from Saturday and then staying for a week until the new semester at Metropolis University starts. Connor's bringing Clark, Lois, and Jon along with him. Jon's still on summer vacation, so Clark and Lois plan on leaving him here with Connor for the week so that he isn't home alone all day while they're at work."

"Jon is Damian's age, right?" Barbara asked.

"Yeah, Jon's turning thirteen next month," Drake answered.

Damian wondered what Jonathan Kent would be like. Hopefully not as immature and imbecilic as his classmates at Gotham Academy.

As the conversation hit a lull, Grayson piped up, "Damian, what's new with you? Are you still ignoring all your problems?" Grayson's tone was far too innocent for the taunt veiled underneath the niceties. Damian shot Grayson a glare, which was matched by Grayson's own stubborn look. Logically, Damian knew his teasing was fueled by well-intentioned concern, but Damian still found it annoying.

"_Don't_ call her a problem," Damian growled. No one at the table looked concerned by their interaction, so Damian assumed that Babs and Stephanie had both been informed of what had happened two weeks ago. "The answer is no, anyways. I'm not ignoring her. I lost something for her last night." 

All other conversations halted when Damian revealed his secret. "Good for you, Demon Spawn," Todd said, speech muffled by the mouthful of food he was trying to talk around.

"That's great news!" Grayson's face was lit up. "We should celebrate. I haven't had an opportunity to throw a party at the Manor in ages."

Damian sighed. Any attempts to halt Grayson's party planning would surely fail. There was no stopping Grayson’s unnerving desire to celebrate every little thing.

"Babs and I can set it up. We can do it next Saturday, while the Kents are here. After all, it's been months since the last time the Banquet Hall was used."

Father rolled his eyes at Grayson’s antics, the slight upturn of his lips proved that he was in support of Grayson's idea. It had been less than one minute since told his tell his family that he had lost the pen for his Soulmate to find, and he was already regretting it.

  
——————————————————————  


It had taken Damian six hours and eighteen jewelry stores throughout Gotham to find the perfect gift to give to his Soulmate. It was a bracelet, made of silver and designed to look like feathers wrapping around the wrist. But it still wasn't perfect, which was why Damian was knocking on Drake's bedroom door.

Drake opened his door, looking much better rested than he had at dinner two days prior. The dark circles under his eyes had faded, and Damian could see only one coffee cup on his desk, instead of his usual three to seven. "Do you need anything?"

Damian nodded. "There is something I need assistance with. Given that it is within your area of expertise, I came to you for help."

Drake looked shocked at Damian's request, but also interested. "Come on in."

Damian walked into Drake's room and shut the door behind him. "I understand that you are knowledgeable about nanotechnology." Damian set the bracelet down on Drake's desk. "Would you be able to monitor heart rate and blood pressure through this, without the modifications being obvious to its wearer?"

Drake picked the bracelet up and examined its size and weight. "It'll take me a few days, but I think it can be done..." Drake trailed off, grabbing a spare piece of paper off his desk and jotting notes down. "It's for your Soulmate, right?"

"Yes."

"Cool," said Drake, "Is there anything else you want to be added to it?"

Damian paused for a moment, considering his words. "Could you add a tracker? One that activates only if the heart rate and blood pressure monitors detect that she's in potentially life-threatening conditions?"

Drake nodded. "I can definitely do that. If I connect everything to an app on your phone, then those kinds of settings can be done through the app rather than through the bracelet itself. But you know, I won't judge you if you want the tracker to be available to you now."

Damian shook his head. "I don't want to invade her boundaries. I just want to keep her safe and out of harm's way."

"That's genuinely really cool of you, Damian," Drake said. "I think Connor's going to like you."

"Tt. Everybody likes me."

Drake laughed. "Sure, Demon Spawn."

Damian turned away from his brother, leaving the room before Tim could catch the small smile on his face.

——————————————————————

"No more complaining, Dami. I didn't get to throw you a Welcome to the Manor party or a belated Birthday party, so you're going to suck it up and enjoy this one," Grayson instructed. He and Barbara had already bought refreshments, created a playlist titled "Can Damian Even Dance?", and decorated the Banquet Hall. Though in Damian's opinion, a blind cat would have been better at decorating than Grayson. Instead of buying normal party decorations, He and Barbara had gone to thrift stores, buying up used gender reveal party decorations. They then wrote the word Soulmate overtop of 'boy' or 'girl' so that each banner proclaimed "It's a _**Soulmate.**_"

"I'm not complaining. I just think that your decorations look terrible."

"Don't call them terrible, they're made with _love._" Grayson could barely keep a straight face while saying it.

Damian rolled his eyes and walked out of the Banquet Hall, heading towards the foyer. He knew that Grayson was the type to go all-out when it came to showing his emotions (i.e. throwing a party to show that he's proud of Damian and supports him) but Damian wasn't really the type to enjoy a party, especially when he's the guest of honor.

"The Kents are here," Tim called out as he opened up the front door.

Damian watched as Tim greeted the Kent family. Damian had already met Clark Kent, though strictly through his superhero identity and was familiar with both Connor and Jon's time spent as Superboy. And Lois Lane-Kent, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author of an award-winning novel (which Damian has read), was just as well-known in America as Superman.

“Clark, I know you've already met Damian, but the rest of you should come and meet him. After all, Dick is throwing the party in his honor.”

Damian walked into the foyer to meet Tim’s Soulmate’s family. “Hello,” Damian dipped his head in greeting. 

“It’s nice to meet you, Damian,” Lois politely greeted him.

"I've read your book," Damian blurted out. "I found your commentary on the negative ramifications of superheroes on our society to be enlightening."

Lois smiled brightly, "I'm glad you enjoyed it. I've always been interested in how Superheroes influence modern society, and I think it's important for people to understand that Superheroes aren't always a good thing to have. Because Superheroes exist, citizens allow themselves to become complacent, pushing the burden of stopping crime onto Superheroes, instead of trying to prevent people from becoming criminals in the first place. It's definitely a multifaceted phenomenon, and one that our society needs to be aware of."

"It's a very complex issue," Damian agreed. "I hope we can talk about this further at a later date."

Lois nodded. "Definitely." She glanced towards her husband. "Clark and I should go find Bruce and catch up with him." The pair left the foyer, walking in the direction of Father's office. Damian, Tim, Connor, and Jonathan walked in the opposite direction, towards the Banquet Hall.

"So you're Damian," said Connor. "Tim's told me a lot about you."

"Tt. Knowing Drake, it's likely all lies and slander. Drake's jealousy often gets the best of him."

"Jealous of what? The fact that you're so effortlessly annoying?"

"You're obviously envious of my innate ability to do everything better than you."

Connor, Tim's Soulmate, let out a laugh. "Tim didn't tell me that you're funny."

"He's not funny, Connor. He's annoying. Now come on, you have to see the decorations Dick and Babs put up. They're awful."

"How do you mess up party decorations?" Jonathan Kent asked.

Tim made a face. "Dick likes to challenge himself by putting up the worst possible decorations. Last year he and Babs convinced Alfred to have us all make the Christmas tree decorations ourselves. I still don't think I've gotten all the glitter out of my hair."

“At least these decorations are harmless,” Damian cut in. “Imagine what would have happened had Father not vetoed Grayson's Fourth of July cookout earlier this summer.”

Connor laughed. “That definitely wasn’t Dick’s best idea. I doubt that fireworks and the Wayne family mix well.”

When they got to the door to the Banquet Hall, Grayson's music already playing, Tim turned to Damian. "By the way, Damian, I finished the modifications that you asked for. It's in my room on my desk when you want to go get it."

"Sure. Tell Grayson I'll be a few minutes."

Tim and Connor walked into the room, but Jonathan stayed behind. "Is it for your Soulmate - what Tim was fixing for you?"

Damian's eyes narrowed. "Maybe."

Jonathan's face brightened. "Cool. Are you planning on losing it tonight?"

“I take it Tim told you and his Soulmate about my Soulmate," Damian commented, ignoring Jonathan's question.

"Tim didn't tell me, Tim told Connor. He wanted Connor's advice on how to apologize to you, for what he said about your Soulmate. I couldn't help but overhear; superhuman hearing doesn't exactly have an off switch. Besides, I was mostly just interested in the fact that your Soulmate is French. My Soulmate's French too."

Damian didn't know how to respond to that. Jonathan Kent was like a breath of fresh air. He was entirely unconcerned about Damian's wealth and status. He understood the sort of responsibility that being a superhero entailed but didn't get weighed down by it. He had just met Damian but already trusted him enough to reveal information about his Soulmate. Jonathan Kent, who seemed so easy to read at first glance, was secretly a conundrum.

The modifications on the bracelet were almost completely imperceptible to Damian's trained eye. Besides a small change in weight, it appeared unchanged. "I like the feathers," said Jonathan, "Definitely more subtle than anything I could come up with. But what was Tim doing with it?”

“Modifying it,” Damian said curtly. “It now measures heart rate and blood pressure.”

Jonathan nodded, “That’s a smart idea. I might have to ask Tim to make me one."

As they left Tim's room, Jonathan continued to fill the silence. "I don't know how you managed to not lose something for so long. I lose stuff all the time. My Soulmate will probably end up figuring out I'm Superboy because I accidentally misplaced my uniform."

"Your Soulmate doesn't yet know that you're Superboy?"

Jonathan shook his head. "We haven't met in person yet, plus the language barrier makes communication through the Soulbond difficult if we aren't both using translators. My Soulmate only speaks a little bit of English, and I'm even worse at French. But I'm getting better. I take classes now."

"I'm fluent in French," Damian added. "If you ever need something translated, I'm sure I could take the time to help you out." Jonathan Kent was one of the few genuinely good people Damian had met. Damian wanted to get to know him better.

"Thanks, Damian."

As Damian passed his bedroom doorway, he noticed something new sitting on his bed. A black book. He changed course, heading straight towards his new Soulmate object. It was a sketchbook. Damian quickly flipped through the crisp, new pages. His Soulmate must be a designer - the first three pages contained clothing designs. The first page was a dress, pink and white striped with a bow around the waist. The second page was a jacket, olive green with gold-colored buttons. The third page was a plain white t-shirt, simple at first glance, but the detailed notes beside the design indicated that she meant to cover the shoulders and shirt sleeves in a detailed embroidery.

"Wow," said Jonathan. "Did you know that your Soulmate was so talented?"

"No," Damian breathed out, taking in every little detail. He had never been so fascinated by fashion designing. Everything about the sketchbook showed talent, dedication, and skill. He could hardly tear his eyes away from the sketches - they were so detailed, with little notes in the margin indicating everything from what store to go to to buy the fabric, to the exact shade she wanted, to whether or not it needed hand stitched. All three pages were dated August 20th - she had planned out all three pieces of clothing that very day. Damian couldn't quite believe that his Soulmate was so perfect.

But pushing towards the front of his mind was the knowledge that he would have to return the book. It was obviously important to her, something she would never want to lose. Damian pulled his phone out and took three pictures, one of each of the sketches, to make sure he didn't forget a single detail. Then he grabbed a sticky note off of his desk and wrote, _"I figured you might want this back - D.W."_

Damian could feel Jonathan watching him. "I'm glad you're a good person, Damian."

"Thanks," Damian said dryly, but the compliment still stuck with him. He had never cared about being a good person until he lived with his Father. He didn't think he would be good at it, but maybe he was wrong.

Then, it was just a matter of losing the sketchbook so that she could get it back. Damian, not wanting the book to get damaged in any way, decided to just toss it into one of the open doorways on the way back to the Banquet Hall. It worked to lose the book only because the Banquet Hall was in one of the sections of the Manor that was rarely ever used, except during social gatherings. The twisting hallways and odd door placements were designed to keep snooping Gala guests from getting into the main part of the Manor without physically locking doors. According to Grayson, they also made for very intense games of Hide and Seek, which Damian had yet to play (Grayson had promised him a game, though, and had yet to break a promise).

"So what is your Soulmate like, Jonathan?" Damian asked him once they found their way back into the Banquet Hall.

"You know, you can call me Jon." Jon's facial expression switched to something that could only be described as dreamy. "My Soulmate... he's wonderful. He loves music, it's his biggest passion. He sends me music recommendations all the time, usually weekly playlists, unless he's bored or wants me to listen to something special. His favorite color is green and he has a pet turtle named Oliver. He has three best friends beside me, and he says he can't wait to meet me in person, but we're waiting until we're at least fifteen."

The night passed quickly in Jon's company. It was a new experience for Damian, having someone his own age to talk to. Conversation flowed easily from Soulmates to Superheroes to school. It was the first time Damian genuinely felt like he had made a friend.

Once midnight came around the party ended. Lois and Clark left to drive back to Metropolis, and Grayson and Barbara left for Blüdhaven. Tim took Connor up to his room, and Brown and Todd both left for their own (rarely used) bedrooms. Damian knew that Jon was staying in the guest bedroom three doors down from his own, so he offered to take him there.

The sticky note on his floor was the first thing Damian noticed, once he was finally alone. Written in the same handwriting as the designs from before was the sentence, _"Thanks, it's a birthday present from my parents - M.D.C."_

Damian knew it was time to give his Soulmate the bracelet. Wrapping it alongside the box of replacement pens he had gotten her, Damian made sure to write in his best handwriting, _"Happy Birthday M. From your Soulmate, D.W."_


	4. No Secrets Among Friends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marinette brings in reinforcements in the form of her three best friends, and offers her help to the last person on Earth she thought would ask her

Marinette definitely knew more about Soulmates that the average person. Her years of research led her to every statistic and testimonial she could get her eyes on. That was why she knew that 67% of all Soulmate pairs were born within 100 miles of each other. That was why she knew that 17.5 years old was the average age for two Soulmates to meet in real life, because of largely cultural factors. In most places, it was considered taboo to purposefully meet your Soulmate before the age of sixteen. The only problem with her research was that while it was helpful, it wasn't able to give her the whole story. So Marinette called in some help, specifically, her three best friends.

"Marinette," her Mom called from downstairs. "Your friends are here. I'm sending them up now with some cookies."

"Thanks, Maman," Marinette replied.

A moment later, the trapdoor slammed against her floor as Alix burst into the room. Kim followed her up, then came Nino, who was carrying a plate of snickerdoodle cookies. "What's the emergency?" Alix asked. "Why did you call us all over? Did you spill grape juice on your sketchbook again?"

Marinette shook her head. "It's sort of complicated. I wanted to tell you guys months ago, but I still barely understood what was happening until yesterday."

"Is something wrong? Are you sick?" Kim asked. Her three friends all looked so concerned, Marinette felt bad for worrying them.

"I'm not sick. I just have something to tell you all." Marinette took a deep breath, "I've been finding things. Soulmate things."

For a brief moment, Marinette's bedroom was silent. Then, Alix let out an excited squeal, before wrapping Marinette up in a hug. "That's great!"

Kim grinned widely. "I knew that you had a Soulmate!"

Marinette understood why Alix and Kim's first instincts upon learning that she had a Soulmate would be to cheer. It was because the two of them were Soulmates themselves, part of a triad bond with a French-Japanese girl named Kagami. While Alix and Kim had yet to meet Kagami in person, they communicated through the bond easily enough that the three had a bond stronger than steel.

Nino, on the other hand, understood that bonds could be difficult. Nino's bond was still in its flexible early stages. Nino had never met his Soulmate, an American boy named Jon, in person. The two had immense trouble communicating with each other, as Jon was solely English-speaking and Nino spoke only French and Arabic. "Is something wrong, Mari?" Nino asked.

"I don't know if I can trust my Soulmate," Marinette blurted out. "And I've wanted to tell you guys ever since I found the first thing but I was too scared. I was scared that if I said it out loud it would make it real. But now I've actually talked to my Soulmate and they're so much better than I expected. And now I'm just confused."

"What happened?" Nino asked.

Marinette pulled a shoebox out from under her bed and opened it, revealing the shiny silver knife. "I found their knife two and a half months ago. It was the first thing I found."

Three pairs of wide eyes stared at her. "Holy hell, Marinette. That's a _knife_ knife," Kim said, his voice half-awe, half-fear.

"Two weeks ago, they lost a really nice, probably expensive, engraved pen and didn't even ask for it back. Then yesterday, when I lost my sketchbook, they lost it back and sent a note along with it saying that they thought it must be important to me. When I send a note back telling them that it was my birthday, they sent me a present." Marinette grabbed the box of pens and the bracelet off her desk.

"These are the exact same brand that you normally use," Nino noted.

Marinette nodded. "I've probably lost about fifty pens by now because they roll behind my desk. But the pens my Soulmate got me, they have little clips on the caps to keep them from rolling. They must have special ordered it." Marinette resisted the urge to grin at the thought.

"This bracelet is pretty nice," said Alix, twisting it in her hands as she inspected it. "I would wear it and I hate pretty much all jewelry. Your Soulmate has good taste. Much better taste than Kim has." Alix made sure to very carefully set the bracelet down on Marinette's desk before launching herself onto her Soulmate's back. Kim grunted in faux pain and shook Alix off so she landed on the bed.

Marinette laughed. She was accustomed to the comical wrestling Alix and Kim participated in.

"So what are you gonna do Mari?" Alix asked, lifting her head up from the pillow she landed face first in.

Marinette shrugged, her mirth fading into the deep chasm of confusion that made up her mindset of the past few months. “I don’t know if I should confront them or just ignore it.”

"I think you should confront them," said Kim.

"Yeah, you definitely can't just ignore the problem," Alix agreed.

"But what if I regret it?" asked Marinette, "What if I ask them and they start ignoring me again? I've only known for sure that I've had a Soulmate for less than three months. I don't want to lose them before I get to talk to them in real life."

"What if you compromised," Nino suggested. "You could wait until you meet them in real life to ask them about the knife. That way, they'll be able to explain everything in person."

Marinette nodded. It was a good idea. "I think that's what I'll do," she decided. "I'm sure my Soulmate has a perfectly reasonable explanation, even if I can't fathom one right now." Marinette put the knife back under her bed and put the expensive pen back into her desk drawer. The gels pens, Marinette left on top of her desk for a project she planned on doing later that day. And after a brief moment of deliberation, Marinette put the bracelet on. 

After a silent pause, Alix piped up. "Can we eat the cookies now? I've been craving snickerdoodles _all_ week."

Marinette laughed and passed the snickerdoodle plate around to her friends. She didn't know what she did to deserve such great friends. She could never ask for better ones. Nino, Kim, and Alix were perfect.

——————————————————————

"Marinette, can I speak with you after class?" Marinette glanced up from her sketchbook to see Chloé Bourgeois standing in front of her school desk. The blonde was giving Marinette an impatient look, as if Marinette was somehow interrupting her, instead of the other way around.

"Why?" Marinette asked. It was a confusing request, after all. Chloé and Marinette rarely ever talked, and when they did it was because Chloé was teasing Marinette and Marinette was defending herself.

A brief flash of emotion flickered across Chloé's face before she quietly said, "It's important."

Marinette and Chloé weren't friends, that was for sure. Chloé was an arrogant and stuck-up, and Marinette could barely stand her. But as much as Marinette disliked the blonde, she knew she couldn't say no. That look on Chloé's face, that look of sadness and fear, Marinette couldn't just ignore. "Fine. You can meet me at my parent's bakery after school."

The rest of the school day passed in a blur as Marinette tried to figure out what was bothering Chloé so much. Could it be a problem with her parents (Marinette knew that Audrey Bourgeois was almost entirely absent from her daughter's life)? Or perhaps Sabrina finally snapped and decided that she could no longer put up with Chloé's near-constant bad moods, so Chloé needed Marinette's help winning her friend back (that couldn't be it since Marinette saw Sabrina fawning over Chloé's new designer sunglasses during lunch). 

When school finally let out, Marinette hurried home to the bakery, but not before sending a quick text to the groupchat, which was made up of her, Nino, Kim, and Alix.

**Marinette:** Chloé coming over to the bakery after school to "talk"

**Alix:** Text us if you need reinforcements

**Kim:** We can bring water balloons if Chloé starts getting mean

**Nino:** I'll tell her that I saw a pair of sunglasses that looked just like hers in the clearance section of Walmart

**Marinette:** Don't worry, I can defend myself. If you want to come over after dinner to work on homework, there will be freshly baked cupcakes. Maman and Papa are trying out a new recipe so they'll be making a couple different test batches

**Nino:** Can't wait

Once she got home Marinette grabbed a plate of macaroons and sat down at a table by the window to wait for Chloé. Her classmate came in only a few moments later, looking rather uncomfortable.

“Hello, Marinette,” Chloé greeted her, her tone of voice quiet and slightly anxious.

“Hi, Chloé. I got macaroons for us to share. The pink ones are raspberry, the yellow ones are lemon, and the green ones are green tea.”

“Thanks…” Chloé seemed stunned by Marinette’s display of kindness. She picked up a lemon cookie and took a bite. “I overheard Alix and Kim talking about your Soulmate. Congratulations.”

Marinette tensed up. “How much did you hear?”

“Just that they gave you a bracelet or something.” Chloé shrugged. “I was wondering… I know you’ve done a lot of research about Soulmate bonds. I was hoping that maybe you would understand what’s going on with my Soulmate bond.

Marinette was confused. Chloé was part of the 19% that didn’t have a Soulmate. In the many years that Marinette and Chloé had been in the same claws together, Marinette had seen Chloé misplace things in class and find them herself later. Chloé didn’t have a Soulmate for her missing things to go to, so they stayed with her. "I thought you didn’t have a Soulmate?”

"When I was younger I thought I didn’t either,“ Chloé admitted. "Then, almost three years ago, I started to lose things. At first, I thought that maybe my Soulmate was just born, but then they lost things no infant or toddler would ever have. Fast food wrappers and cigarettes and-" Chloé flinched. "Condoms." After a deep breath, Chloé continued. "Have you ever seen anything like this?"

Marinette though back to all of the research she had done. "I've never encountered anything identical to what's happened to you. There were a few reported cases where when someone's heart stopped completely and restarted, they realized that they lost their Soulmate bond in the process. Maybe what's happening to you is similar to that, but instead of losing their bond, maybe your Soulmate gained a bond."

Chloé shrugged. "Maybe that's it." She picked up another macaroon and started picking it apart bit by bit, letting the crumbs fall back onto the plate. "I don't even know why I'm telling you this. I just don't want to talk to Sabrina about it because her Soulmate bond has always been perfect. Sabrina's perfect Soulmate from Quebec video chats with her every other weekend. All I have is a ridiculous, seemingly sex-obsessed Soulmate I never even wanted in the first place because I'm asexual." Chloé blurted out, her face flushed.

"You can be asexual and have a Soulmate, Chloé," Marinette assured her classmate. "It's actually a very common occurrence in the asexual community. Romantic and platonic Soulmates are becoming more and more accepted in society."

Chloé shook her head. "We _aren't_ going to be romantic Soulmates. I could never be romantic Soulmates with someone who loses condoms for their underage Soulmate to find. However... I suppose we could be platonic Soulmates, if he learns to be a little more cautious over what he loses." Chloé looked lost in thought. "I guess I never really considered that we could just be platonic Soulmates..." Chloé mused. "I don't know anyone with a platonic Soulmate."

"I'm sure if you asked around on the school forum you could get connected with other students with Platonic Soulmates."

Chloé gave Marinette a genuine smile. "That's really good advice Marinette." Grabbing one last macaroon off of the plate Chloé stood up. "I have to go home, but thanks for talking with me. And I'm sorry for all the times I've been unkind to you. It wasn't fair, and I apologize."

"I forgive you, Chloé," said Marinette. It was the truth. Marinette wasn't one to hold a grudge, even against stuck-up Chloé. Marinette's empathy, her ability to be understanding no matter how much easier it would be to hold a grudge instead: that was what made her perfect for her Soulmate. Now all she had to do was meet him.


	5. Becoming Ladybug

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marinette learns to trust in herself (and in the power of magical creatures).

The first day of Marinette's third year of collège went about as well as she had expected. She woke up fifteen minutes late, but her Dad gave her macaroons to take to school. Her macaroons spilled all over the road when she helped an elderly man cross the street, but there were still enough left in the box to give one to Alix, Nino, and Kim. Overall, Marinette had to say that her morning was less of a complete disaster than she had expected.

Chloé was still in her class, and although the blonde had stopped being cruel to Marinette after their heart-to-heart the year prior, she still had her same stuck-up attitude. "Adrien is finally coming to school today. He's a famous model, very well known. I'm his best friend and he _adores_ me," Chloé gushed to Sabrina.

But when the school bell rang and no one besides walked through the door, Marinette watched Chloé deflate. Her shoulders hunched and she kept pulling out her phone to check for texts. Finally, Chloé raised her hand.

"Yes, Chloé?" Mlle. Bustier said.

"May I go use the restroom?"

"Of course. Just make sure you get back before the next bell rings, or else you won't know where to go for your next class."

Chloé hurried out the door and Marinette noticed that her phone was tucked into her back pocket. It was obvious to Marinette that something must have happened to Adrien, and Marinette couldn't help but feel bad for Chloé. Grabbing a scrap of paper out of her backpack Marinette wrote, _"First day back at school. One of my classmates seems really sad today and I really want to comfort her, which is weird. We aren't friends and she used to be really mean to me but she also came to me for advice last year and now it seems like maybe we could be friends... I don't know what to do. ~M~"_

Crumpling the paper into a little ball, Marinette quickly tossed it on the floor and kicked it out of sight when Mlle. Bustier wasn't paying attention. A couple minutes later, Marinette glanced down at her backpack and saw a note tucked into her History textbook. She discretely pulled it out of her backpack and read it under her desk.

_It's ultimately your choice whether or not you want to pursue a friendship with your classmate. Just know that if she ever hurts you again I will find her and ruin her life. I hope your first day back at school goes well. If you need any help with your homework just send me a note. D._

Marinette smiled and put the note away. She had a special folder she kept all of her Soulmate correspondence in because, at the beginning of their relationship, she kept re-losing the notes DW sent her and had to ask for them back almost daily.

Chloé walked back into the classroom just moments before the bell rang, looking even more miserable than she had when she left. Marinette took it that she must have spoken with her friend Adrien and received bad news.

As the bell rang and the students stood up, Mlle. Bustier told the class, “If you have P.E. this period, please report to the stadium. Mr. D'argencourt is expecting you there. The rest of you can head to the library."

Marinette stood up to go to the library but accidentally knocked over her backpack, spilling her new notebooks and folders across the staircase. As she packed up her bag and left the classroom, Marinette could hear Mlle. Bustier scolding Ivan for fighting with Kim.

Once in the library, Marinette started to search for Chloé. Marinette felt bad for Chloé and knew that she would probably want to talk about it. Marinette spotted the blonde sitting in one of the library chairs, reading a book.

"Hey, Chloé."

Chloé looked up from the book she was reading. It was a well-worn copy of _Pride and Prejudice_, dog-eared with colorful tabs stuck to pages and writing scribbled in the margins. "Hello, Marinette."

"I saw that you looked upset about something this morning. Do you want to talk about it?"

"Adrien was supposed to come to public school today, but his Father changed his mind. Now Adri's spending _another_ year being homeschooled, even though he hates it. Adri's so lonely, but his Father doesn't care about his feelings at all. It just makes me so mad!" Chloé's fists were clenched, and tears were welling in the corner of her eyes.

"Chloé, that's awful. Is there anything we can do to help Adrien?" asked Marinette.

Angry tears started to fall. "There's nothing we can do. When I texted Adrien, he told me to not bother. His Father is angry at him for trying to go to school. Now Adrien isn't even allowed to let me visit him after school, which means he even more isolated. I want to help him but it's just so unfair!"

Out of the corner of her eye, Marinette was the first to spot the black and purple butterfly fluttering towards Chloé. But before Marinette could say anything, the butterfly landed on Chloé's book and turned it black. A purple glow lit up Chloé's face. "Yes. Of course," Chloé mumbled to herself.

"Chloé? What's going on? Are you okay?" questioned Marinette.

Then, Chloé's skin was overtaken by black bubbles, which left her no longer in her iconic yellow jacket and black and white shirt. Now she was clad in a pure-white outfit with a blood-red blindfold covering her face. She held a scale in one hand and a sword in the other. Chloé's book, which once sat on the table now sat on one side of the scale. "I am not Chloé Bourgeoise. I am _Liberté_. My goal is to give freedom to those who have been punished unjustly."

"Monster!" a girl screamed, and in an instant, the library descended into chaos. Liberté picked up the chair she was sitting at and threw it out the library window, shattering it. Marinette stumbled back and watched as Liberté jumped out the window onto the street down below.

"Come on," Alya, the new girl in Marinette's class pulled Marinette to her feet and dragged her over to look at the security cameras. Outside, Chloé was heading down the street, cutting through abandoned cars with the flick of her sword. "Can you believe it?" asked Alya.

"We need to call the police. Something happened to Chloé!" Marinette was nearly in tears, worried for her classmate. 

"Chloé has been turned into a real-life supervillain!" squealed Alya. "I'm going to go film it. This is the best day of my life." Alya ran towards the library doors.

"W-Where are you going?" asked Marinette.

"Where there's a supervillain, there's a superhero not far behind. There's no way I'm missing that!" Alya sprinted out of the library, leaving Marinette all alone.

School was canceled for the rest of the day. Marinette walked home in silence, running her fingers over her lucky bracelet. Upstairs in her room, Marinette collapsed onto her bed and opened her laptop. The first thing she saw was the news broadcast of Liberté's rampage through downtown Paris. "Hundreds of thousands of Parisians will have to evacuate if law enforcement cannot stop the monster, reported to be a child possessed by some sort of dark energy," Nadja Chamack stated.

"I hate first days of school," groaned Marinette as she grabbed a piece of paper off of her desk.

_I'm perfectly fine right now but something bad is happening in Paris (where I live. I know we weren't going to share that info so soon but it seemed relevant). My family is scheduled to evacuate ASAP. I'll try to write as much as possible but it might be tough. ~M~_

As Marinette walked to her window to lose the note, she noticed a tiny box on her windowsill. It was black with red designs on the top. Curious, Marinette opened it up. The box started glowing, as bright as the sun, and Marinette pushed it away, shielding her eyes. When she opened them a massive red bug was hovering in the air in front of her. Marinette let out a frightened scream and jumped back a few feet. "Papa help! There's a giant bug in my room!" Marinette yelled, before remembering that her parents were both helping an elderly neighbor with the evacuation.

"Don't be scared," the red bug spoke.

"The bug can talk!" cried Marinette.

"I'm not a bug, silly. My name is Tikki. I'm a kwami."

"Get out of my room, freaky magic bug."

"Marinette, please listen to me. You're the only one who can stop Liberté."

Marinette stopped freaking out and remembered what Alya had told her. _Where there's a supervillain, there's a superhero not far behind._ “You mean, I could be a superhero?”

“Yes.”

“This must be some mistake! I’m not superhero material. My classmate Alya, she loves superheroes. She’d totally be up for the challenge. You should go see her instead!”

“It must be you, Marinette. It isn't an accident that you received a miraculous. You were chosen for a reason.”

“I guess if I’m the only one who can save Paris... I’ll do it.”

“Great! Now let me explain to you how this all works. The supervillain you are fighting is known as Hawkmoth. He uses his own miraculous to create akumas, which use negative emotion to turn ordinary citizens into rampaging monsters. All you have to do to get Chloé back is break the object that hold’s Liberté’s akuma and capture it.”

“It’s her book,” Marinette said. “The butterfly landed on it right before Chloé turned into Liberté.”

“Good. Once you transform, you'll be given the power of creation. To activate this power, all you have to do is say 'lucky charm'. The Lucky Charm is your secret superpower, and should only be used when you truly think it is necessary. This power isn't meant to be abused.”

“This is all going really fast. I don’t think I can pull this off, Tikki.”

“Of course you can. All you have to do is trust yourself, Marinette. Now just say 'spots on' to transform.”

"Spots on?" Marinette questioned. The earrings started to glow, and Marinette saw Tikki get pulled into the earring. The transformation felt... weird. It was bright and warm, like a sunny summer day, and once it was over it felt completely natural, like breathing.

"Woah..." Marinette breathed as she stared at her new outfit in the mirror. It was stunning, clearly not a children's costume. Marinette had never designed with particularly expensive silk before, but she had a vague memory of once, no older than four or five, running her hand over an expensive silk and tulle wedding dress she found in her Grandmother's closet. Marinette had been scolded for that action (the dress was worn by her Grandmother on her wedding day, and the only way Marinette would ever wear it would be if she herself was walking down the aisle) but the feeling of smooth silk on her fingertips had been worth it. Marinette didn't think she would ever feel anything quite so light and delicate. 

The material of the costume felt similar to that dress but stronger and more durable. It was clearly meant to look like a ladybug. It was blood red with large black spots. _Clearly not meant for stealth,_ Marinette thought tactically. A small cape came down from behind her back, red and black on the outside, but shimmering black on the underside. Marinette touched the cape to feel the material and jumped back when the (NOT FABRIC!) twitched underneath her fingers. The cape unfolded to reveal a pair of wings, large and impressive. 

"Okay. Not a costume then. How does this thing come off? Tikki, if you can hear me, I want my normal clothes back." Marinette already missed her bracelet, which had gone somewhere during the transformation. She hoped it would come back whenever she detransformed.

Mme. Chamack started to speak again. “Liberté is heading towards the Seine River. The monster seems unstoppable. The entire city of Paris is on track to be completely evacuated by midnight tonight. Paris is in desperate need of a hero to save the day.”

Marinette looked up at her computer screen. She watched the helicopter pan over the city of Paris, she watched families evacuating from their homes because Hawkmoth had made _her city_ unsafe.

"Marinette? Did you get home okay?" her Mom asked from downstairs.

"Yes, Maman!"

"I'm glad you got home safely. Have you packed yet? Our street is scheduled to evacuate in two hours."

"I'm almost done packing my bags."

"Your Dad and I will be up in our room getting ready. Once you've finished packing, make sure you get something to eat."

"Okay." Marinette took a deep breath and got up onto her balcony. "I guess I have special powers now. All I have to do is trust myself. Let's do this."

——————————————————————

"Spots off," said Marinette as she jumped through her balcony trapdoor down onto her bed. Ladybug's outfit disappeared in a flash of light, and Tikki buzzed around Marinette's head. 

"I did it!" Marinette cheered. Looking in the mirror, Marinette noted that all of her clothes, including her favorite bracelet, had returned to her.

"You see. I told you that you could do it if you just trusted in yourself," said Tikki.

On her laptop screen, Mme. Chamack was delivering good news to all of Paris. "The evacuation has been canceled, and thousands of Parisians are grateful to be able to return home, thanks to the efforts of Ladybug and Chat Noir. A celebration will be organized in honor of our city's new protectors." Marinette shut her laptop. The note she had written to her Soulmate about the evacuation was still there, unsent. Marinette ripped it up into little pieces and threw them away. She then pulled out the dress she was working on, as her day of crime-fighting had left her with quite a bit of motivation.

"Marinette! Did you see the news?" her Dad asked when Marinette went downstairs for dinner.

Marinette smiled. "Is it about the day of celebration?"

Her Mom looked upset. "No. The magic butterfly that turned Chloé into Liberté has started transforming even more people. No one is sure whether or not Mayor Bourgeois is going to continue the evacuation."

"Oh no!" Marinette was horrorstruck. "I should... I should go upstairs and bring my bags down, just in case." Marinette bolted upstairs to her room. "Tikki, what happened? I thought it was over!"

"Did you capture the akuma?"

"What does capturing the akuma have to do with the new transformations?"

"An akuma can multiply, that's why it must be captured. If Chloé's emotions become negative again, then the akuma will turn her back into Liberté! She will control all of her copies, and will bring them to life to serve as her army!"

"So this is my fault." Marinette's emotions plummeted. "I failed as a superhero. You should have just chosen someone else. Someone like Alya or Alix or Kim.”

“It’s okay, Marinette. You can still fix this. All you have to do is go back and capture Liberté’s akuma."

"No, I can't do it. I was never cut out to be a superhero. Chat Noir would be better off with a new partner, and you would be better off with someone better than me. I quit."

"You can't quit, Marinette. Chat Noir needs you. Only you can cure akumas. If he tries, there could be deadly consequences. It's your duty to free Chloé from her cure."

"If Cat Noir can't cure the akumas, then I'll just find another Ladybug. I told you, I can't be Ladybug! I'm sorry Tikki." Marinette took out the earrings. A single tear rolled down her cheek as she put the earrings back in the box. "Tikki, I'm so sorry," Marinette whispered, as she placed the box in her backpack, ready to take it to school tomorrow.

A slip of paper on the floor caught Marinette's eye. She picked it up and read the words written there.

_Are you okay? You haven't written to me since this morning. D._

_I tried to do good today, but even though I tried my hardest, things still got worse. I don't think my best is good enough. ~M~_

_Sometimes you have to trust blind faith. Even if you can't fix things completely, making them less bad is still progress. I believe in you, M, even if you don't believe in yourself. D._

Marinette smiled, already feeling much better. The little box of responsibility on her desk, which seemed like such a daunting task only moments ago, now felt like something she could handle. Marinette let out a deep breath, then opened the box back up. 

"Marinette!" Tikki cheered. "I knew you'd come around!"

"I got a little bit of encouragement from a friend. I still don't think that I'm the best candidate for Ladybug, but I have to trust myself, even if I don't think I'm good enough. Even if I can't fix everything, helping just a little bit is still better than giving up."

"That's the spirit! Now let's figure out how to save Chloé!"

——————————————————————

As soon as Marinette stepped into her classroom the next morning, she could feel the tension in the air.

"Are you sure you aren't still a supervillain, Chloé?" Alya questioned Chloé. "After all, there are still people who got turned into your villain form. How do we know that you aren't going to start making them go psycho just like you."

"That's not fair," Marinette piped up. "The news reports said that what happened to Chloé was involuntary, not something that she can control."

"Her father is Mayor Bourgeoise. Obviously, this is a government cover-up. I'll bet the Mayor has friends in high places who were perfectly willing to lie." Alya said.

"I can't help that Hawkmoth decided I was the perfect candidate for akumatization. I'm perfect for everything."

"And it was all for some boy, who didn't even bother to show up to school yesterday. Chloé says they're best friends, but I'll bet he doesn't even like her," whispered Alix to Kim.

Chloé's face grew bright red, in embarrassment and anger. "Shut up!" Chloé screamed. "You don't understand anything!" Chloé ran from the room, tears starting to stream down her face.

"Alix!" Marinette scolded, "That's a horrible thing to say."

"But Chloé is mean to us all the time. Why should we be nice to her when she destroyed half of Paris yesterday?" Alix asked indignantly.

"Nothing will ever change if we keep being mean to each other. The only way for Chloé to learn to be nice is if we show kindness and compassion to her."

"How can you be so sure that Chloé can change?" Kim questioned.

"Everyone has the ability to change. That's what makes us human." The sounds of screaming interrupted Marinette. Chloé had turned back into Liberté. "I have to go," said Marinette. "But after Ladybug and Chat Noir save Chloé you all need to apologize to her."

Before anyone could protest, Marinette ran out the door, brushing past an unfamiliar blonde boy standing in the doorway. She quickly found a supply closet to transform in.

Tikki flew out of Marinette's bag the moment the closet door closed. "Marinette. This battle is going to be much more difficult than the last, so be careful. Remember, you and Chat Noir are a team. You must work together if you want to win this."

"I can do this," Marinette whispered to herself. "Tikki! Spots on!"

——————————————————————

"Lucky charm!" cried out Marinette as she narrowly escaped being crushed by a stray car. She and Chat Noir had been fighting Liberté for two hours without any luck. Both superheroes were unskilled, not yet strong enough to go toe to toe with Liberté, and while she and Chat tried to work as a team, they seemed to operate on different wavelengths. Marinette had been hesitant to use her lucky charm, as she doubted her ability to finish the battle in five minutes - the time she had before detransforming after using lucky charm. But desperate times call for desperate measures. As the glow of the lucky charm faded, a one hundred pound weight landed at Marinette's feet. 

"What do I do with this?" questioned Marinette. In an instant, she could picture it all in her mind. Tie a rope to the handle of the weight, then loop the free end of the rope around something high up to create a pulley. Use the pulley to lift the weight up into the air, then knock the weight onto the empty side of Liberté's scale. That should provide enough force to launch the book into the air. Then have Chat use his cataclysm to free the akuma.

After relaying the plan to Chat, who was eager to put his cataclysm to good use, Marinette put her plan into action. In only a minute after Marinette summoned her lucky charm, the battle was over. Chloé lay on the ground looking disoriented. The copy of _Pride and Prejudice_ was held in Chat's hand. The akuma fluttered around the book. The weight lay off to the side.

Marinette purified the akuma and watched the white butterfly flutter away with a smile on her face. Two hours of hard work fighting against Liberté had paid off. "Miraculous ladybug!" The one hundred pound weight seemingly evaporated, letting out a burst of energy that restored Paris to its former glory. Rubble in the street disappeared and crumbled buildings reappeared fully formed.

All that was left was Chloé and the book. Chat got to Chloé first, offering her a hand to pull her back up onto her feet.

"Thank you," said Chloé in an uncharacteristic show of gratitude.

"You're welcome, Mademoiselle. And here is your book."

"Thanks." Chloé stared down at the tattered cover of the book like it held the secrets to the universe. 

"I'm going to head home Ladybug, before I detransform," said Chat.

"Goodbye!" Marinette called as he left. Marinette knew that she only had a minute or two left, but she felt the need to talk to Chloé.

"Are you alright, Mademoiselle?" Marinette asked her blonde friend.

Chloé shook her head. "Everyone thinks that I'm the worst and I hate it. Sometimes I just wish that I could be nice. Maybe then people will actually want to be friends with me."

"Wanting to change is the first step," said Marinette. "And even if you can't fix all of the damage you've done, even just a little bit of progress is better than nothing at all."

"Thank you, Ladybug," said Chloé, a small smile on her face. "Could- Could you sign my book?"

"Sure." Marinette took the book and flipped to the first page, where there was already a line of writing.

_To Chloé, my very annoyed Soulmate. Sorry about the bullets and the cigarettes. Please remember that first impressions aren't always everything. - JT_

Marinette wrote her own note right underneath: _"Dear Chloé, don't be afraid to take the first step. - Ladybug." _

And even though Marinette was dead tired, after she got home she made sure to write her Soulmate a quick note. _"Had a long day, taking a nap now. I'll write to you later tonight if I don't end up sleeping until midnight. ❤︎"_ And once her head hit the pillow, she was dreaming of ladybugs and white butterflies and a boy whose face she couldn't quite see yet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the super long wait between updates. I hope to get the next chapter (Damian's pov) out in the first week of January.
> 
> If you liked the chapter please leave a comment!


	6. Changing For The Better

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Damian learns a lesson about trust (and how to respect the privacy of his Soulmate)

It took Damian almost a month to realize what was going on. In his defense, the app Tim programmed for the bracelet only alerted Damian when her blood pressure or heart rate got too low. It did not, however, alert Damian when the bracelet went offline.

It was two AM on a brisk October morning when Damian discovered this. He had just gotten back from patrol with Stephanie and Tim. Father hadn't gone, as he had a charity dinner to attend. It had been a good night for crime-fighting. Two robberies stopped with no bloodshed to either the criminals or the bats. Stephanie slipped upstairs as soon as they got back, but Damian and Tim lingered, Tim still working on a case, and Damian cleaning his gear. As soon as the last knife was sharpened and put away, Damian pulled his phone out and tried to open up his messaging app to see if Jon was still awake when his thumb slipped and pressed the wrong app by mistake. It was Tim's app, the one he programmed for Damian, named (rather un-creatively, in Damian's opinion) _Bracelet Monitor_. Curious to see how her vitals were doing, Damian waited for the screen to load. Except, once it did, nothing happened. 

"Drake?" Damian called out across the cave. "Something went wrong with that app you made."

"What do you mean?" Tim asked, already walking over. He plucked the phone out of Damian's hands and started rapidly tapping the screen. "This isn't good," Tim muttered.

"What do you mean 'not good'. You said it would alert me if there was a significant change in the vitals."

"It would alert you. The vitals aren't the problem. The bracelet is somehow offline." Tim grew more and more frustrated as he dug deeper into the app. "I just accessed the data records. It's been going offline sporadically for over a month, which should be impossible. The only way it should stop working is if it lost power, which it didn't do because it would have alerted me when it came back online. It's like it just stops existing, for anywhere from a few minutes to hours."

"Is she in trouble?" Damian questioned, already ready to get on a plane and fly to wherever she was in order to protect her.

"I'm not sure..." Tim's voice trailed off, only for him to brighten up a moment later. "The bracelet came back online. Her vitals are good, though her heart rate and blood pressure are both a little higher than her baseline. In fact, it seems like her heartrate always elevated right before the bracelet goes offline and right after it comes back online. This is just baffling." Tim handed Damian his phone, the vitals pulled up onto the screen. "Here's your phone back. I'll look into it more tomorrow."

"Wait." Tim was about to walk out of the cave when Damian stopped him. "Should we activate the GPS. See where she is so we can make sure that she's safe."

Tim looked hesitant. "Give me a few days Damian. Make that our last resort, because if your soulmate is anything like you, I don't want to be the one to explain to her that I enabled your stalking tendencies."

"I don't have stalking tendencies," grumbled Damian.

"Tell that to the heart rate monitor, blood pressure monitor, and GPS tracker embedded in the first gift you ever gave to her." Tim's voice wasn't necessarily condemning Damian, but he knew better than to push the matter with Tim.

Damian shook his head and followed Tim upstairs. _Patience is a virtue, after all,_ Damian reminded himself. _Someday I'll hold her in my arms and she'll be safe and sound and this will all be worth it._

——————————————————————

A few days turned into a few months as Tim continually postponed his defeat. Both Damian and Tim could see that Tim wasn't making progress, and by the time January came around, both Damian and Tim were getting desperate. Damian, because his soulmate's bracelet was still going offline, unpredictably, but with increasing frequency. Tim, because he had never before had such a tech malfunction where he couldn't action find the source of the problem. 

One night, while Tim was working on the bracelet's programming in the Batcave, he simply turned away from the computer and said, "I give up."

Damian, who was in the middle of sparring Grayson, said without hesitation, "Than give me access to the GPS."

"Look, Damian, I know that when I first made it I offered you that option, but I don't think it's a good idea anymore."

"It's the _only_ idea we have for guaranteeing her safety." Damian threw a punch and dodged to the left, barely missing a crack to the ribs by Graysons escrima sticks.

"Relationships are supposed to be built on trust, not one person invading the privacy of the other."

"I'm not breaking her trust, I'm trying to keep her safe. She could be abused or kidnapped or-" Damian blocked the punch Grayson threw but got his legs swept out from under him.

"Focus, Damian," Grayson scolded once Damian got up off the mat. "You can't let yourself get distracted in a real fight."

"I'm only distracted because Drake refuses to show me the location of my Soulmate. She might be in danger, and you refuse to do anything to help," Damian snapped.

"C'mon, walk with me." Grayson grabbed Damian by the arm and pulled him out of the Batcave.

"Let go of me, Grayson." Damian ripped his arm out of Grayson's grip, but still kept up with the older man as they walked through the Manor to the kitchen. Outside the snow was falling. It was one week until Christmas, and Damian mentally reminded himself to ask his Soulmate if she celebrated Christmas before he wrapped the gift. After all, it would be awkward to send it to her only to learn that she didn't really want it.

"So how are things with your Soulmate?" Grayson asked as he pulled out ingredients for hot cocoa. 

Damian gritted his teeth. "I've already told Tim. She is unsafe and I would like to rectify that by knowing her location."

"How will that help?"

"What do you mean?"

Grayson turned the stove on. "How will knowing her location help you protect her."

"It just will. If I can track her location I'll be able to make sure she isn't getting into trouble." It wasn't until Grayson turned around with a frown on his face that Damian realized the connotation of her words. "Not like that," he protested. "I don't want to control her. I just want to keep her safe."

"Damian, trust is vital in a relationship. You have to trust that she can keep herself safe."

"You might have a point," Damian conceded. He was still shocked by his earlier comment. He didn't want to be the controlling Soulmate. He wanted her to feel free, to feel independent. He didn't want to hurt her by keeping her safe.

"How often do you communicate with her?" Grayson stirred the cocoa in the pan.

"A couple of notes every day."

"And when you ask her how she's doing, what does she say?"

"She has her good days and her bad days, but overall she seems happy."

"If she says she's okay, I think you have to believe her. I think that's the only way you can make it work." Grayson poured the cocoa into cups. "Did you know that Bruce offered to find my Soulmate for me when he first adopted me."

Damian shook his head.

"I told him no, I wanted to find my Soulmate the natural way. And I did. I met Babs and we became friends even before we knew that we were Soulmates. And Lord knows I wanted to keep her safe after she got into fighting crime. But even though she got hurt, I don't regret the fact that she became Batgirl. Because _she_ doesn't regret the fact that she became Batgirl. I trusted Babs to make her own decision, and no matter the consequences, trust is always the right decision."

"You're right," said Damian. "I haven't been treating my Soulmate very fairly."

Dick set the cocoa down in front of Damian. "Just remember that your Soulmate is her own person too. You have to give her her own choice, even if the choice she ends up making isn't what you wanted."

Damian took a sip, savoring the flavor. "It's good. Thank you, Grayson."

"No problem."

——————————————————————

"...But Richard talked me out of it," Damian explained to Jon over video chat. He'd been talking to his best friend for over an hour, trying to explain the revelation that had come over him. "I can't believe I said that I wanted to 'keep her out of trouble'. Even hearing it now, I cringe over how controlling it sounds. I thought that everything I was saying was rational, but then it was like someone flipped a switch inside my brain and suddenly all my creepy stalker behavior no longer makes sense. I can't justify the bracelet anymore. Now it just feels like an invasion of her privacy.

"Can you turn the bracelet off? Have it just be a normal bracelet?" asked Jon

"I'm going to ask Timothy to deactivate everything tomorrow. When I meet her in person, I'll apologize for monitoring her without her consent. It wouldn't be fair to try and keep what I did a secret from her."

"That's good. I think you're making the right choice."

Damian wasn't sure what to say. "Thank you. I suppose."

"You're welcome, Damian. By the way, I don't know if Tim has told you yet, but Connor and I are spending half of Christmas break at Wayne Manor."

Damian perked up. "You are?"

"Yep. And while I know you're morally opposed to video games, I'm still bringing some and you're going to play them with me, whether you like it or not."

"Fine, but only if you come on patrol with me," Damian sighed dramatically.

"Of course. I can't wait!"

Jon's smile was contagious. Damian couldn't hold back the twitch of his lips. He was glad he had a best friend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next chapter of Lost and Found will be from Adrien’s Point of View (so get hyped!). As a general disclaimer, there won’t be any Adrien salt in this fic. I don’t think Lost and Found will include character bashing for any characters, but if I do include any in later chapters, it will be properly tagged and there will be a disclaimer for the specific character it pertains to. If you have any further questions, you can leave a comment or send an ask to my tumblr (same as my ao3 username) and I’ll get back to you ASAP.


	7. Friendship Is Better Than Soulmates

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adrien Agreste doesn't have a Soulmate (but he does have a friend, and that's all he really needs).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am very proud of the fact that I got updates out two weeks in a row. I hope you all enjoy!

People always assumed that Adrien had a soulmate. After all, he was the sunshine child, the light of his parents' lives. He brightened up every room he walked into. His Mother always told him that one day he would get a soulmate of his own. He was still young, and age gaps in soulmate pairs didn't necessarily mean anything nefarious. But as he got older and older, his Mother's words felt more and more worthless. And then his Mother left. Without his soulmate, his Father grew cold and distant and no longer seemed to see Adrien as anything other than one of his models.

Adrien's sunshine faded. He didn't have a Soulmate. He didn't need a Soulmate. He didn't want a Soulmate.

To the media, his parents were a love story. But Adrien knew better. He remembered the day his Mother disappeared. He was eleven and his parents were screaming in the foyer after a dinner party. Mother yelled that she was taking the keys and leaving, and Adrien felt guilty that he was relieved that she wasn't taking him with her. She was a reckless driver when she was mad. The next morning, Mother wouldn't pick up the phone. Father called and left a message, saying every swear word ever invented in the process. But Mother never called back. The morning after Father called the police. It took them three weeks to find Mother's car. 100 miles south of Paris, abandoned on the side of the road, hidden by trees. A week later, his Father was already planning the funeral.

Adrien begged his Father to keep searching. But his Father refused. He put the household on lockdown, claiming that someone had murdered Emilie Agreste, someone who was targeting the Agreste family. He fired his personal assistant, a young woman named Hannah. Adrien adored her, because she treated Adrien like family, rather than like a job. Taking Hannah's place was Nathalie Sancoeur. She handled Adrien like he was a disobedient puppy, who needed to be trained to follow rules. She was an icy dagger to Adrien's heart, a reminder that all of the warmth in his life was gone.

It took months before Adrien finally started to fight back. With only one ally at his side, the only friend his Father had ever let him make, Adrien turned to Chloé Bourgeoise for help. Together they created a plan. It consisted of one major step. **Adrien would be going to public school for now on.**

The logistics were a little more difficult to figure out, but Chloé had never backed down from a challenge before. Registering Adrien for school without parental consent was difficult, but Collège Françoise Dupont was well known for the incompetence of their administration. It only took Chloé ten minutes and two threats of Mayoral intervention to convince the principal of Françoise Dupont to enroll Adrien, placing him into the same classes as Chloé. With all the pieces in place, the only thing Adrien had left to do was show up to school. Unfortunately, that turned out to be the hardest part.

The night before his first day, Chloé called Adrien to video chat. She made him promise that no matter what his Father did or said, he would try his hardest to come to school. Adrien made the promise. It would turn out to be a mistake.

Getting to school ended up being too difficult a challenge. Nathalie stopped him on the stairs leading up to the doors of the school, mere feet from freedom. "Adrien, I would advise you to reconsider. Your Father has made up his mind on this."

"But..." Adrien began a rebuttal, but it faded when he caught sight of an older man with a cane struggling to get to his feet. "One moment," said Adrien as he rushed to the man's side and helped him up. 

"Thank you, young man," said the man, who began to walk off in the other direction.

Adrien returned to Nathalie, who stared him down impassively. "Continue."

"I just want to go to school like everybody else. What's so wrong with that?"

"Get in the car." Nathalie's order was not a suggestion. As Adrien looked into her cold eyes he knew that there would be hell to pay if he disobeyed her. His Father's short temper combined with Nathalie's apathy would lead to nothing but pain. Adrien had already lost so much. He didn't want to lose the little he had left.

"Please don't tell my Father about all this," begged Adrien.

Nathalie sighed noncommittally as she held the car door open for him. Tears pricked the corners of Adrien's eyes. It seemed like everything in his life went wrong.

Adrien had always been eager to please. He would always be willing to do anything for the people he cared about. But in his efforts to please his Father, he hurt Chloé, and for one fleeting moment, Adrien couldn't remember what it was that was keeping him tied down to Earth. Why didn't he just leave, follow in his Mother's footsteps and abandon the world he knew. It would be so easy to hop on a bus, to find some middle-of-nowhere town and disappear, to become someone else. Adrien had always hated modeling. He never wanted to be treated like a spectacle. Yet all those thoughts were brushed aside in the time it took Adrien to blink. He couldn't just leave. Not when he had Chloé waiting for him.

"You are _not_ going to school," Adrien's Father snapped as soon as Adrien stepped through the door. "I've already told you this once before."

"But Father-" Adrien protested.

"Everything you need is right here, where I can keep an eye on you. I will not have you outside in that dangerous world."

"It's not dangerous. I'm always stuck inside, all by myself. Why can't I go to school with Chloé?"

"Chloé Bourgeoise has proven herself to be a terrible influence on you. I will not have you meeting with her any longer."

"But Father-" Adrien cringed back, tears pricking his eyes.

"You are my son, and you will follow my rules as such. Nathalie, continue Adrien's lessons." His Father stormed out of the entryway, and Adrien left to go to his room.

"Adrien, your lessons await."

"I'll be back downstairs in a couple minutes," Adrien mumbled as he all but sprinted up to his room. Slamming his door behind him, Adrien collapsed onto his bed with a groan. He had texted Chloé in the car, letting her know that he wouldn't be able to come to school after all. She was distraught, but at his Father, rather than at him. He couldn't even imagine how upset she would be when she learned that she wouldn't be allowed to come over to his house anymore.

**Adrien:** Chloé, I'm really sorry. My Father doesn't want you coming over to my house anymore. He thinks you're a bad influence on me. I don't think I'll be able to change his mind.

The tears started to fall immediately after Adrien sent the text. What his Father was doing wasn't fair, but Adrien didn't know how to fix the mess his Mother had left behind. As he lay on his bed, staring at the ceiling, he started to feel the ground shake beneath him.

The next half-hour passed by in a whirlwind. His life was changed irrevocably. Chloé was akumatized, turned into a monster whose only goal was to liberate Adrien from his Father's clutches. Adrien found a magic ring that gave him the thing he wanted most in the world - freedom. Along with the ring came Plagg, the world's most gluttonous God of Destruction.

"Now you can't tell anyone that you're Chat Noir. The Miraculous of Destruction is too powerful to fall into the wrong hands."

"Okay," Adrien agreed.

"All you have to do to transform is say 'Claws out!'" explained Plagg.

"Got it. Plagg, claws out!" The ring glowed green as Adrien began to transform. The transformation was nothing short of miraculous. It took only a few moments, but it felt almost devoid of time. Afterward, he felt completely changed. His human senses had been amplified, and the whole world felt different. Adrien glanced in his mirror and gasped. "What in the world?" He was now clad in a black leather bodysuit, with a black mask covering his face. His ordinary human eyes had been transformed into those of a cat. "This is so weird."

Another rumble of the ground underneath his distracted Adrien from his awe. "Oh, right. I have to go save Paris." He opened a window and without even glancing behind him, Adrien left the confines of his home behind. "Liberté, here I come."

——————————————————————

Adrien liked working with Ladybug. Despite Plagg's very limited explanation of Adrien's new powers and Ladybug's tendency to trip over her own feet when she got nervous, the duo freed Chloé from the akuma in record time. It broke Adrien's heart, seeing Chloé sprawled out on the ground, looking dazed and confused. His best friend had her life ripped apart, and it was his fault. All because Adrien didn't make it to school. All because Adrien wasn't able to disobey his Father.

"What's going on? What am I doing here?" Chloé asked.

Before Adrien could answer her questions, his ring began to beep. 

"We both need to get going. Our identities must remain a secret." Ladybug advised.

Adrien glanced over at Chloé, who was picking herself up off the ground, brushing grass stains off of her white pants. "I suppose you're right. I'll see you again soon, Ladybug." Adrien dashed away, his newfound abilities as Chat Noir allowing his to vault out of the stadium in three jumps.

He returned home, exhausted, and collapsed onto his bed. The transformation ran out before he could remember how to detransform manually.

"I demand camembert." Plagg flew around his room, throwing a tantrum the instant the transformation ran out.

"I'll go down to the kitchens." As Adrien walked down the stairs, he glanced over at the picture of his Mother. She looked so calm and reserved in the portrait, nothing like Adrien remembered. Emilie Agreste was a whirlwind. She lived every day like it was her last. She was the most impulsive person Adrien had ever met. Once, she dragged Adrien out of bed at five in the morning so that they could drive to Belgium to have authentic Belgian waffles for breakfast. Father was furious, but Mother didn't care. She promised Father over the phone that she would never do it again, with a smirk on her face that told Adrien everything he needed to know about his Mother's promises.

Adrien stared at his Mother's portrait, and made up his mind. Come hell or high water, he would be going to school tomorrow.

With a wheel of camembert cheese in hand, Adrien came back into his room ready Plagg to descend on him.

"Cheese!" Plagg cheered as he dove at Adrien.

Adrien pulled the cheese away from Plagg. "Not yet. You don't get cheese until you answer some of my questions."

"Fine," Plagg groaned. "One question, then I get the cheese."

Adrien already had a question in mind. "Did you only choose me because I don't have a Soulmate. That way I don't have any distraction, and I can't lose the miraculous."

Plagg's rolled his eyes. "You humans are so self-centered. You _can't_ lose your miraculous because you don't own your miraculous. I'm just letting you borrow it for your silly hero duties."

"Then why did you choose me?"

"Because you have a good heart, kid. Because you know the difference between right and wrong. Because you're willing to go the extra mile in order to make things right in the world. There isn't any reason in particular, except that you're the best person for the job."

"Thanks, Plagg."

"Now give me my camembert before I take it from you by force."

——————————————————————

Adrien snuck out of the house that morning, having already resolved that he would be there for Chloé, no matter what. Unfortunately, he didn't even make it to his classroom before Chloé transformed back into Liberté. Adrien heard the screams as he walked down the hallway and broke out into a run towards the nearest empty classroom. "Plagg, claws out!"

Chat Noir and Ladybug had a much tougher time defeating Liberté the second time around. It took two exhausting hours before Ladybug resorted to using her lucky charm, which gave her a one hundred pound weight. "What do I do with this?" Ladybug asked, but Adrien could already see the wheels turning in her head. She quickly explained to him the plan: pulley the weight onto Liberté's scale in order to launch the book off, then destroy the book with Chat's _cataclysm._ Adrien was glad that he would be able to put his cataclysm to good use, especially after his mishap the day prior when he accidentally used it before the battle even started.

In only a few moments, the battle was won. Adrien held Chloé's book, the copy of _Pride and Prejudice_ that her Soulmate gave to her. As Chloé's best friend, Adrien was the one person who Chloé had told everything about her Soulmate to. Adrien knew that Chloé was asexual. He knew that when she was twelve-years-old she gained a Soulmate who was already well into adulthood. He knew about the cigarettes and bullets and condoms she found in the beginning. He helped Chloé write her first note to her Soulmate. He was there when she got the book in return, an apology gift from her Soulmate. 

Adrien walked up to Chloé, offering her a hand to pull her back up onto her feet.

"Thank you," said Chloé, staring at Adrien with realization in her eyes.

Adrien tried to keep his facial expression blank, though internally he was panicking. How could Chloé _already_ have figured out that he was Chat Noir? "You're welcome, uh, Mademoiselle. And here is your book."

"Thanks." Chloé stared down at the tattered cover of the book like it held the secrets to the universe. 

"I'm going to head home Ladybug, before I detransform," said Chat. In reality, he wanted to get away from Chloé before she decided to confront him right then and there.

"Goodbye!" Ladybug smiled at him, and in another world, Adrien would have fallen in love with her. But after everything he had been though, Adrien didn't particularly _want_ to fall in love. He didn't want a story-book romance. He didn't want the love story his parents had. 

Adrien wanted friends. Adrien wanted more people like Chloé in his life, more people who were willing to help him, no matter what the cost. But first, Adrien needed to talk to Chloé. He had promised Plagg that he wouldn't reveal his identity to anyone, but maybe there were some promises that needed to be broken.

——————————————————————

"Thanks for coming to school today," Chloé said. They were both in the library for third period when Chloé had grabbed him and dragged him to a secluded spot in the back of the library.

"My Father's going to be disappointed in me, but that's not much of a change. He's never been proud of me, no matter what I do."

Chloé hugged him, then whispered in his ear in a faux-serious voice, "I'll help you hide the body."

Adrien let out a laugh and then shook his head. "I know you would, Chloé. How are things between you and J.T."

"He sent me a note this morning." Chloé pulled a folded piece of paper out of her pants pocket. "Dear Soulmate. What's your favorite type of cookie? (I happen to know a very good baker who is currently taking requests)"

"I assume you told him chocolate chip."

"You know me so well." Chloé's playful expression turned serious. "I know you very well too. That's how I know that you're Chat Noir."

"I'm not-" Adrien began to protest, but Chloé cut him off.

"You don't need to argue with me. It's not going to work."

"But-"

"I'm not going to tell anyone. I just want you to know that I'm here for you if you ever need to talk."

Adrien blinked a tear out of his eye. "Thank you, Chloé. Thank you for always being there for me."

"You're welcome." Chloé stood up, then pulled Adrien up to his feet as well. "Now c'mon. I have this friend named Marinette who I think you would like."


	8. The Best Plans Involve Plane Tickets

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wedding invitations are found, discoveries are made, and suddenly the only obstacle between Damian and Marinette are the 89 days before her plane takes off.

Time passed, and Marinette loved every second of it, especially the time she spent with her friends. By the time she graduated from collège and moved onto lycée, her group of friends had expanded. She, Nino, Kim, Alix, Chloé, and Adrien spent as much time as they could together. The group of six had started an unofficial language-learning club. Marinette, Nino, and Chloé all made a pact to learn English, their Soulmates' primary language. Kim, Alix, and Adrien chose Japanese as their language of choice. For a while, Marinette was exceptionally proud of herself for taking the initiative to learn English, until she learned that her Soulmate's actual native language was Arabic. It took only five minutes of begging for Nino to agree to teach Marinette Arabic. She didn't pick it up as naturally as she picked up English, but after three years, she got rather proficient.

Time passed, and Marinette yearned for her Soulmate. Every Friday night for three years, she spent with her five best friends in the world. They baked cookies, watched movies, and stayed up late talking about Soulmates. But there was always something missing - her Soulmate. Marinette desperately wanted to meet him, but she knew that neither of them was ready. They were both too young. Marinette's parents didn't want her to meet him until she was at least sixteen. Still, Marinette thought that she deserved to at least know his name. After all, he learned her name when they were fourteen. Marinette had slipped up and sent him a picture of one of her pieces of artwork, a piece with her signature at the bottom. When Marinette asked him to return the favor, he decided, citing that their previous agreement to not reveal names until they were sixteen was still in effect. Marinette knew he was right. Learning more information about him would only increase the temptation to try and discover his identity, and discovering his identity would only lead to her trying to meet with him. But understanding didn't make it any easier, not when she so desperately wanted to hold his hand and talk all night with him - in person, not through paper.

Time passed, and Marinette got better at being Ladybug. She and Chat Noir learned how to work together. At first, it was a little rocky. Marinette was her clumsy self, tripping over her yo-yo string and falling flat on her face every time she tried to use her new wings. Chat Noir was a good partner, though it took him some time to figure out how to work as a team. Eventually, they both perfected their roles as Paris's superheroes. Things only got better after the superhero duo revealed their identities to each other. Learning that Chat Noir was actually her friend Adrien Agreste was a relief - Marinette already had so much on her plate, and Adrien helped take some of the load off of it.

Time passed, and the burden of fighting Hawkmoth decreased. At first, fighting him felt like a full-time job. Marinette and Adrien had to transform at all hours of the day, and sometimes the fights would last hours and require multiple retransformations. For two sleep-deprived thirteen-year-olds, it felt like hell. But eventually, Hawkmoth's attacks decreased. A viral campaign, started by none other than Chloé Bourgeoise, called on the people of Paris to be kinder to each other, to help strangers in need, to do whatever they could to prevent akumas, instead of simply waiting for Ladybug and Chat Noir to fix everything. Amazingly, it seemed to work. Hawkmoth's akumas didn't stop entirely, but overall they grew less powerful, and eventually, less frequent. Tikki and Master Fu both had their own theories for Hawkmoth's gradual decline, but Marinette believed wholeheartedly that it was Chloé's doing.

Time passed, and Marinette changed. She started as an awkward thirteen-year-old, desperately trying to juggle her Ladybug responsibilities, her schoolwork, and her relationship with her Soulmate. Three years later, and Marinette was sixteen. Confident, capable, and ready for anything. She wasn't perfect, she knew that, but Marinette felt that she just might be prepared to meet Damian.

Time passed, and Marinette and her Soulmate passed notes constantly. Three years of notes required five separate shoe boxes just to hold them all. Every one in a while, Marinette would go back and read them all. 

_I played my first video game today and it was more enjoyable than I expected. My friend Jon got it for me. It's called Ultimate Mecha Strike III, and apparently, his Soulmate recommended it to him. It's really popular in France, but it hasn't caught on in the United States yet. It has a multiplayer mode, so if you play it too, maybe we could play together sometime. D._

_After many months of waiting, my eldest brother finally took the engagement ring out of his sock drawer. If he doesn't propose soon I fear that I might have to do it for him. D._

_The macarons you sent me this morning were absolutely heavenly. Unfortunately, I made the grave mistake of sharing them with my family. If you do not send more soon, there might be a riot in my house. D._

_I passed my driving test this morning. Now that I finally have my license, my brothers will stop bothering me about my illegal driving. It's not my fault that where I live, you can only get legally licensed once you reach sixteen. Frankly, I don't think I should have had to abide by it because it's a rule made for children with poor risk assessment skills. My risk assessment skills are above average, and they have always been. D._

_Happy Sixteenth Birthday, Marinette. I hope that you have a wonderful day today, and I hope that this year is the year we finally get to meet face to face. Damian W._

However, it wasn't until the day of Damian's seventeenth birthday, March 19th, that Marinette and Damian finally took the first step towards meeting each other in person. 

On the morning of Damian's birthday, Marinette woke up early and headed down to the kitchen. Damian's favorite treat was Marinette's lemon raspberry macarons, so it was a birthday (and half-birthday) tradition that Marinette would bake him a whole batch and send them to him one-by-one throughout the day. The macarons were just a small gift for him, though. Marinette's real birthday gift for Damian was a project she had been working on for weeks. It had taken hours upon hours of practice just to become proficient enough at knitting to even think about beginning the project, but Marinette was nothing if not persistent, especially when it came to the people she cared about. Her gift to Damian was a knitted blanket, but not just any knitted blanket. It was made of soft dark blue and white wool. Marinette had painstakingly knitted it so that it contained the same constellations as would be above Paris on the night of Damian's birthday. _So that tonight, even though we are miles apart, we can be under the same night sky._ Marinette hoped he would like it. Her friends all assured her that he would (Nino, hopeless romantic that he was, was brought to tears when he read the note, which Marinette hoped was a good sign).

It wasn't until late that night when Marinette was sending the last macaron to Damian, that she finally decided to send her gift.

_Every day, I am amazed by you, Marinette. Your creative talent astounds me every time I look at something you created. I will treasure this blanket forever. Damian._

Marinette blushed. The only downside of meeting Damian was that he would see exactly what his words did to her, specifically, the amount that she blushed on a daily basis just from reading the notes he sent to her.

Marinette was getting ready for bed when she received another note. She was immediately curious, as this one was in an envelope. 

_After the longest engagement in the world (3 years, can you believe it) my brother and future sister-in-law have finally set the date for their wedding. If you are able, I would love for you to be my date for the ceremony. You wouldn't have to worry about a hotel or transportation - my house has a spare bedroom that you can sleep in. You could stay for as long as you'd like, though I know that your internship at Agreste Fashion starts on the 29th, so I'm sure you'll want to be home in time for that. I hope that I can see you soon. Damian._

Attached to the note were a wedding invitation and a plane ticket. The invitation was beautifully designed, cream paper trimmed and decorated in gold foil. **YOU'RE INVITED. The ▇▇▇ family invites you to celebrate the union between ▇▇▇ and ▇▇▇. The ceremony will be held on Saturday, June 20th at 5 o'clock at ▇▇▇ Gotham, NJ.**

Marinette frowned. He had blacked out the names of his brother and his brother's fiancée, as well as the street address of the wedding location. "I'm not _that_ obsessive," Marinette complained to herself. In fairness, while her actions used to border on stalking, she had mellowed out over the past few years, partially due to becoming Ladybug.

The plane ticket didn't have anything blacked out, though none of the information gave Marinette any hints to Damian's identity, other than the fact that he lived in or around Gotham. It was a standard ticket. American Airlines. The date and time of departure: Wednesday, June 17th, at midnight. The most surprising part of it was that he booked her a first-class seat.

"So sweet," smiled Marinette, "But you didn't have to."

There was one glaring problem in her going to Gotham for a week - Hawkmoth. But his attacks happened so infrequently, practically once a month at that point, that Marinette didn't think it should be her biggest concern. A quick internet search revealed that in the worst-case scenario, a nonstop flight from Gotham to Paris was seven hours. While Hawkmoth could certainly do damage in those seven hours, the miraculous cure would reverse all of the damage. Marinette knew it was slightly irresponsible of her, to put her Soulmate responsibilities over her Ladybug responsibilities, but she pushed the thoughts out of her mind. For once, she was going to make a selfish choice. Without even alerting Tikki of the situation, Marinette snagged a piece of notebook paper off of her desk and penned a note to her Soulmate.

_To start, I would **love** to be your date to your brother's wedding. It might take a little bit of convincing to get Maman and Papa on board but I'm pretty sure I can get them to agree. I am sixteen now, after all. Also, you didn't have to spend so much money on the plane ticket. You're already letting me stay with you at your house. I would have been fine flying coach. _

_I’m glad you liked my birthday present. Hopefully, my next gift to you will be given in person. I’ll be counting down the days until I arrive in Gotham. ~~Marinette~~_

Marinette sent the note off, going to bed before waiting for a reply. After all, she would need to be well-rested for a long day of convincing her parents to let her travel to Gotham alone. 

——————————————————————

“No way. Gotham is one of the most dangerous cities in America. I’m not letting you travel there alone.”

"But Papa-"

"No."

Marinette frowned. Breakfast had gone a lot worse than she had expected. While she knew her Dad would put up a fuss, she hadn't anticipated him being so dead set against her going. It was Marinette own fault, for not preparing for the argument with her Dad, for trying to pass the trip off as "no big deal", for not doing her research on the crime rates in Gotham (apparently they were exceptionally high, nearly twice as dangerous as Paris). Marinette thought that the discussion would be fairly simple, but her Dad wouldn't budge.

"Tom, she has to meet Damian at some point. This is a good opportunity for her to get to know him and his family." Marinette's Mom was tentatively on her side, but Marinette could tell that even she wasn't fully on board with the plan.

I won't have Marinette traveling halfway across the world, unaccompanied, just to meet her Soulmate."

"What if I wasn't unaccompanied?" asked Marinette.

"It would be too difficult for us to take a week off from the bakery, you know that, Marinette," said Mom. "There's just no way that this trip of yours will work. I'm sorry, Sweetheart."

Marinette sighed, her shoulders slumping. "Fine," she whispered. Abandoning her half-finished breakfast muffin, Marinette grabbed her backpack and left the kitchen. "I'm off to school. Not sure whether or not I'll be home for lunch."

Marinette spent the walk to school holding back angry tears. Her parents _promised_ her that she could meet her Soulmate when she turned sixteen. Yet now that she had the opportunity, they were opposed to it just because they didn't like the city he lived it. (In the back of her mind, Marinette knew that they were just looking out for her, but at that moment, missing the wedding felt like the end of the world).

"What's got you in such a bad mood?" asked Chloé as soon as Marinette sat down next to her. 

The entire group of friends all had independent study together first thing in the morning, so all eyes were on Marinette when she pulled the envelope out of her backpack. Spilling the documents inside across the table, Marinette said, "Damian invited me to his brother's wedding, which would be wonderful, except my parents won't let me go because it's in Gotham."

"Gotham as in Batman and Robin?" asked Kim.

"Yep. Apparently, the crime rates are really bad, and my parents think it's too dangerous for me to go there alone."

Chloé picked up the invitation, furrowing her brow as she read it. "This is going to seem crazy, but look at this." Chloé grabbed a book out of her backpack, the copy of _Pride and Prejudice_ that she had gotten so long ago, and opened up the front cover. Tucked inside was the same wedding invitation that Marinette had. "Yesterday, my Soulmate invited me to _his brother's_ wedding as his plus one."

Marinette's eyes widened. "You mean-"

"Damian and J.T. are brothers."

Nino cleared his throat. "I got this from Jon this morning." He held the same invitation in his hands. "Jon says that his family is really close to the family of the groom, and Jon's brother is dating one of the groom's brothers."

"Just how many brothers are there in this family," Alix exclaimed.

"I suppose Damian has at least three," said Marinette. "He talked about his brother's a lot, but I never really connected the dots that there were three of them."

"Wait a minute," said Chloé. "If Nino and I go with you, you won't be going unaccompanied."

"We should all go," Nino suggested.

Kim shook his head. "Alix and I are spending all of June in Japan with Kagami, remember."

"Maybe next summer then," Chloé decided. "We should all take one big vacation somewhere next summer. Maybe a cruise."

While Chloé was brainstorming vacation ideas, Adrien had pulled out his phone to check his calendar. "Damn," he swore. "I have Fashion Week in New York City from the fourteenth to the twentieth. There's no way my Father would let me miss that."

"Maybe you could come afterward," suggested Marinette. "Gotham is only a two-hour drive from New York City. You could be in Gotham on the twenty-first, and you'll still get to spend time with us."

Adrien nodded. "I think that might work. Father would make me bring a bodyguard, though."

"Even better. There's no way my parents could complain about me being unaccompanied if I had a trained bodyguard with me for nearly all of the week."

"Then it's a plan," Chloé sounded excited.

"I can't wait," said Marinette, her mind already starting to daydream about her future trip to Gotham, to see Damian in person for the first time.

——————————————————————

_Good news, Damian. I got my parents to agree to let me travel to Gotham. It's a bit of a long story, and I think I might wait to tell you about it until I can tell you in person. Also, you'll have to send me the dress code so I can start making my dress._

_I'd like to stay in Gotham until the 27th if you're able to have me for that long. I'll leave early that morning, so I'll have a day to adjust to the jetlag. _

_There are 89 days left until I get on the plane to Gotham, which means that there are approximately 2136 hours until I meet you face to face. I might die from the wait, but I know that it will be worth it when I get to see your pretty face. ~~Marinette~~_

Marinette felt her guilt grow every day that she didn't tell Tikki about the wedding. Marinette didn't like keeping secrets from Tikki, but she also knew what Tikki was like when she was disappointed, and it made her cringe away from the idea of telling her. But enough was enough, and a week after Marinette agreed to go, she brought it up to Tikki.

"Hey Tikki?"

"Yes, Marinette."

"How bad do you think it would be if Chat and I took a vacation in June."

Tikki narrowed her eyes in thought. "A train from London to Paris can make the journey in just under two hours. It's not ideal, but a vacation would be doable."

"I wasn't exactly thinking of England."

"Germany then? Spain? Switzerland? They're all a little further away, but another hour isn't the end of the world."

"I was thinking..." Marinette hesitated. "I was thinking Gotham. To meet Damian."

"No way."

"But Tikki, you don't understand."

"A flight from America to Paris would take far too long in an emergency."

"It's seven hours. You said another hour isn't the end of the world. What's another three or four?"

"Ladybug is not a hobby, Marinette. It's a full-time responsibility. You know that."

Marinette felt like her arguments were going nowhere. "Tikki, listen to me. Hawkmoth's attacks have been more and more infrequent lately. It's over halfway through March now, and we've only had four so far this year. All four were very weak akumas. Chat and I defeated them all in less than twenty minutes. Hawkmoth, for whatever reason, isn't attacking with the same level of danger as before."

"Hawkmoth is still a threat."

"I understand that, but a flight from Gotham to Paris is seven hours. While the akumas would cause damage during those seven hours-"

"-and that damage to Paris would damage the reputations of Ladybug and Chat Noir. The citizens of Paris will spend seven hours believing that they've been abandoned by Ladybug and Chat Noir."

"We can fix any physical damage. As for damage to our reputations, it wouldn't be that hard to record a message telling everyone to remain calm and wait for us to show up. It wouldn't be great for our reputations, that's true, but I’ve given the last three years of my life to Ladybug. I deserve to be Marinette for a little bit.”

“I- I- Fine,” Tikki sighed. “You and Chat do deserve a break. I’m sorry for being so unreasonable.”

“It’s not your fault. You’re just looking out for Paris, in case I get a little too wrapped up in my own life. We balance each other out.”

Tikki nodded, her smile returning. “Life is better with a little bit of balance.”


	9. At First Sight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Damian gets everything ready for Marinette's upcoming arrival. Days later, in an airport terminal at two in the morning, Damian and Marinette finally meet.

It took Damian two weeks to get Marinette's bedroom prepared for her. Fixing up the guest bedrooms of Wayne Manor was a task that Alfred usually undertook. However, Alfred was busy with wedding preparations, and Damian wanted everything to be perfect for Marinette's upcoming visit, so he took it upon himself to get everything ready for Marinette's stay. 

Damian hadn't realized how many guest bedrooms Wayne Manor had until it was time for him to choose one for Marinette. It wasn't an easy choice. Despite the fact that Alfred was meticulous in his upkeep of Wayne Manor, most of the guest bedrooms had been overlooked during the various renovations of the house. Friends of the family (such as the Kents) slept in the family wing when they stayed the night, so there was never any reason to maintain the guest bedrooms. However, the upcoming wedding meant that some changes were necessary. There simply weren't enough rooms in the family wing to house all of the wedding guests, so a strict "Bats Only" policy (Richard's words, not Damian's) was put into place for the family wing. So Damian had to find Marinette a suitable room somewhere else in the house.

Damian toured every guest bedroom in Wayne Manor before choosing the best one. It was his room of choice for many reasons. It was only one hall down from his own bedroom. It was painted rose pink, one of Marinette's favorite colors. Most importantly, it had east-facing windows, which meant that it faced the Wayne Manor gardens. Marinette had spoken at length about how she found nature to be an inspiration for her designs. The Wayne Manor gardens were considered some of the best in Gotham. Damian hoped that Marinette approved of the room.

Choosing the perfect room was difficult, but decorating it came in a close second. Alfred had done a quick renovation of all the guest bedrooms at the start of the summer, so they were all perfectly livable, but Damian didn't want to put Marinette in just _any_ guest bedroom. He wanted it to feel personal, to show her that he cared about her enough to make it feel like home.

Damian brought his box of Marinette's things to her new room and got to work decorating. After five years at Wayne Manor, Damian no longer kept the box hidden in his closet. He kept her lost things in a wooden chest pressed up against the footboard of his bed. Now, that chest sat in Marinette's new room. Her lost clothes were hung up in her closet. Her lost pens and markers were put into a desk drawer. Barrettes and scrunchies were placed in a dresser drawer, chapstick and hand lotion put in her bathroom, the stuffed animal cat she sent to him years ago when he complained of nightmares was placed at the foot of her bed. 

Damian got new things for her, too. Vases decorated the bedroom, though they would be empty until the morning of Marinette's arrival, to prevent the fresh flowers from wilting. Art decorated the wall of the bedroom, as well as three strings of fairy lights (once, Marinette commented to Damian that she had trouble falling asleep in complete darkness since she was so used to the lights of the city).

Decorating the room reminded Damian of all the progress he had made since he first came to live with his Father. Five years ago, he would have found it impossible to give Marinette her things back. He hoarded everything special to him back then, still traumatized from his childhood in the League of Shadows. Now, after years of talking with Marinette, he felt comfortable enough in his relationship with his Soulmate to finally return her lost things to her.

Two days after Damian finished getting the room ready for Marinette, the Kents arrived. Jon had his own room to prepare for his own Soulmate, Nino, who was also attending the wedding.

"Are you ever going to tell her that you're a Wayne, or are you planning on waiting until she recognizes you in the airport to let her know?" Jon asked from across the guest bedroom.

Damian refused to dignify that question with a proper answer. "Do you want my help getting the room ready, or did you just ask me here so that you could criticize me?"

"Damian, I'm being serious. Marinette is going to be here - at Wayne Manor - in nine days. Whether or not you tell her beforehand isn't going to stop her from recognizing you."

"It's complicated. I would rather tell her in person than through a letter, but there's no way for me to do that without our meeting first. She is French, though, so there's a possibility that she wouldn't recognize me on sight."

"She'll recognize the name though. The Wayne family isn't just famous in America. You're like the royal family of Gotham."

Damian wrinkled his nose. "Stop. Don't say it."

"The Ice Prince of Gotham," Jon teased.

"You know how much I loathe that nickname."

"I just think it's funny," laughed Jon. "The media thinks you're cold and arrogant when in reality you're a closet romantic who's planning on hand-picking flowers for his girlfriend's room."

"Marinette and I aren't officially dating."

"I bet you twenty dollars that the two of you will be official by the time she gets on her plane to return home."

"I don't gamble," Damian grumbled, but his retort was half-hearted at best. 

"If you want to date her, you should just ask. The week that she's here at Wayne Manor would be the best time to do it. It's always best to do that sort of thing in person."

"I'm not sure-"

"Just consider it. I'm sure you'll spare both of you a lot of drama if you just ask her out already."

"I'll think about it," Damian agreed.

"Good. Now help me move some furniture around."

"You have super-strength," Damian rolled his eyes. "You don't need me to help you."

"Yeah, but it's not like you have anything better to do, except wait for Marinette to arrive."

Damian shrugged. "It might be amusing to watch you struggle to maneuver furniture through the hallways."

"Or you could help me, and I'll put in a good word for you to Marinette."

"She doesn't even know you. Your 'good word' wouldn't mean anything to her."

"I'm naturally likable. We'll be friends within a day. I guarantee it."

"Is that a bet, Kent?"

"If you want it to be, _Wayne_."

"Twenty dollars says that she doesn't find your golden retriever personality charming."

"Okay. Twenty dollars says that we'll be sharing memes by the end of the wedding."

Damian picked a lamp up off of the nightstand and lobbed it at Jon's head. Jon caught it with one hand, and set it back down. "By the way, do you think Bruce would mind me borrowing a car next Wednesday? Nino's flight arrives at 2 AM, and I don't trust Gotham taxis."

Damian's eyes narrowed slightly, suspicious of the coincidence. "Is it an American Airlines flight from Paris?"

Jon checked his phone. "How did you know?"

"That's the flight that Marinette is arriving on."

"What an odd coincidence," remarked Jon. "I suppose we can drive together, then."

"Sure," replied Damian. He paused a moment to ponder the realization that had just occurred. "I wonder if Marinette and Nino know each other."

"Wouldn't that be serendipitous, if our Soulmates were already friends."

"It's probably just a coincidence," said Damian, but the thought stuck with him the whole rest of the day.

—————————————————————— 

The drive to the airport was rather animated, for it being 1 AM. Jon spent the entire drive announcing exactly how many minutes until he got to see Nino in person for the first time. Damian rolled his eyes every time, but in reality, while he didn't outwardly show it, he was just as excited to see Marinette in person.

Jon was practically vibrating as Damian parked the car in the airport parking lot. "Fifteen more minutes until their plane lands."

Damian let out a deep breath as they walked through the airport, feeling unexpectedly anxious. Maybe he should have told Marinette about his rather prestigious family name. Would she resent him for keeping it a secret for so long?

What Damian didn't expect to see when they entered the airport terminal was his brother Jason, who stood off to the side, glaring at his phone like it personally offended him.

"Todd?"

Jason's glare turned to Damian. "What are you doing here? Did Bruce send you?"

"No. We're here to pick someone up."

"Who? I thought everyone was already in town for the wedding."

"My Soulmate, Marinette," Damian admitted.

"And Nino, my Soulmate. They're arriving on the same flight," said Jon.

"American Airlines from Paris? Arriving at two AM?"

Damian nodded, already feeling a sense of déjà vu back to his conversation with Jon just a week prior.

"My Soulmate is on that flight. I invited her to Dick's wedding."

"And where is this Soulmate of yours going to stay? Your one-bedroom apartment?"

Jason shook his head. "I was planning on dropping her off at the Manor. I already checked in with Alfred."

"Dropping her off? You aren't staying?" asked Damian.

"No," Jason wrinkled his nose. "It's not as if that's a surprise. You know that I wouldn't last another week under Bruce's roof."

Damian did know that - Jason and his Father fought every chance that they could get. Anything was fair game to be ruined by Jason and Bruce's tumultuous relationship - family dinners, birthday parties, even Dick's engagement party ended with Jason storming out. "Does your Soulmate know that you're dropping them off at someone else's house and then leaving?" Damian further inquired.

Jason glared at Damian. "I'm sure she'll survive."

"Do you really want to piss off your Soulmate on her first day in Gotham? You're pretty much setting yourself up for failure."

"Well, if you're the Soulmate expert now," Jason's sarcasm was scathing. "What do you suggest I do."

"Wait here until the plane arrives so that you can properly greet your Soulmate. Then, Jon and I will drive your Soulmate back to the Manor while you return to your apartment and pack your bags to stay at the Manor for the rest of the week."

"No."

"Alfred already got your room ready earlier this week."

Jason paused for a second. Damian knew that while Jason could barely stand to be in Bruce's presence, he was still fond of Alfred, and viewed his as something of a father figure. "Fine. But before you two ask, Chloé is my _platonic_ Soulmate."

"And you're telling us this because..." Damian questioned.

"She's seventeen."

Damian's eyes widened, for two reasons. The first reason was that Jason was twenty-two years old. Five years older than his Soulmate. The other reason was that both Marinette and Nino, his and Jon's Soulmates, were aged within a year of Chloé. The probability that the three Parisians knew each other wasn't certain, but it was likely.

"Don't give me that look," snapped Jason. "Our bond is strictly platonic. Just because Bruce doesn't believe that I have any morals doesn't mean I'm into underage girls."

"I'm not judging you," Damian said cooly. "I merely found it interesting that all three of our Soulmates are approximately the same age, and all three are arriving on the same flight."

"Do you think they all know each other?" asked Jon.

Damian shrugged. "It's completely possible that they might."

"Well, wouldn't that be a funny little coincidence," scoffed Jason. "My Chloé who - mind you - I only met _after_ I was brutally murdered and revived by the Lazarus Pit, and your Soulmate, the girl who's first Soulmate object was a knife, might know each other."

"Don't forget about my Soulmate," piped up Jon. "Nino's pretty cool too."

Jason barked out a laugh. "God, our lives are so fucked up, I guess this might as well happen."

"By the way," said Jon. "The plane is landing now."

Damian's eyes immediately darted over to the floor-to-ceiling windows. The bright lights on the landing plane were the first thing that caught his eye. He watched as the plane hit the runway, then slid to halt on the tarmac.

"Just a few more minutes," Jon cheered. "Just a few more minutes until Nino gets here."

"Is he always so painfully optimistic?" asked Jason.

"Only when he's awake," Damian responded. "You get used to it, after a while, but it can be kind of jarring at first."

Jason shrugged. "I'm sure I'll have plenty of time to get used to it during my two-week stay at the Manor."

Jon rolled his eyes. "Why is it that you two can only have a civil conversation when you're being mean to someone else?"

"Todd is like that with just about everyone," Damian responded.

"Shush, they're coming," Jon interjected.

The first-class passengers of the plane started filtering into the terminal. Damian briefly wondered if he should have made a sign before he pushed the idea away. It was too late now. 

Besides, Damian figured that he would know Marinette when he saw her. It was a common theory that your Soulmate was the most attractive person in the world for you - that every feature you ever found attractive on someone else was ultimately because it was a feature that could be found on your own Soulmate. If that was true than Marinette would have blue eyes and dark hair, a light dusting of freckles across her nose, and a smile that could light up a whole room. No matter what she looked like, though, Damian knew that he would love her. He had _already_ fallen in love with her, and he hadn't even met her in person yet.

Damian froze. It had always been a thought that lingered at the back of his mind, but he had yet to admit it to himself. _He was in love with Marinette._

"There's Nino," Jon rushed forward to greet a spectacled boy wearing a pair of headphones around his neck.

"That must be Chloé," Jason sighed, gesturing to a blonde girl, texting away on her phone.

And then he saw her. _Marinette_.

She was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. Shiny dark hair, gorgeous blue eyes, freckles - she was everything that he imagined and yet _more_ because she was _real_ and _right in front of him_.

"Hello, Damian," Marinette greeted with a smile.

Damian was right about that prediction too. Her smile was bright, and it made him feel warm inside. "Hello, Marinette. It's nice to finally meet you."

"It's nice to meet you, too." Marinette looked at him in the eyes. "I know it's a little late, but I have one last birthday gift to give you."

Damian was about to ask her what it was - because she didn't even have her luggage with her - when she leaned forward on her tiptoes and pressed a kiss to his lips.


	10. The First Of Many

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marinette hosts a sleepover and loses a bet. She meets her Soulmate face to face for the very first time, and romance ensues.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now that I've finished up my April Angst AU fic (titled _Quarantine_, you should check it out if you haven't already), _Lost and Found_ is now my top priority fic again!

Marinette climbed up the ladder into her bedroom, where her friends waited. She carried in her hands a tray of snickerdoodles, chocolate chip cookies, and macaroons, leftovers from the bakery that had been made fresh that morning.

"Snickerdoodles!" Chloé cheered, snatching two cookies off the tray before Marinette had even made it the whole way up the ladder. Chloé always took two of everything, one for herself and one for her Soulmate, who had woven his way back into Chloé's good graces, despite their rocky beginnings.

Marinette finished the climb and shut the trapdoor behind her, not wanting to wake her parents. Given the time difference between Paris and Gotham, Marinette, Chloé, and Nino were trying to adjust early, staying awake until 4 AM and sleeping in until 1 in the afternoon. It was an uncomfortable change, but a necessary one if Marinette, Chloé, and Nino wanted to arrive in Gotham without crippling jetlag.

"It's a shame that you four won't get to try any cookies," Marinette said to the screen of her laptop. Adrien, Kim, Alix, and Kagami were all attending the sleepover via video chat. Kim, Alix, and Kagami were all in Japan, as they were spending the summer vacation getting to know each other. Adrien was in New York City for Fashion Week, though he would meet up with his friends again after the wedding when he came to Gotham to join them in visiting their Soulmates.

"That's okay," said Alix. "Kagami will get to try your fantastic cookies when she comes back to Paris with us."

The trio of Soulmates had decided that they would spend three weeks in Japan, then spend three weeks in Paris, allowing Kagami the opportunity to see Alix and Kim's hometown. 

"I'll make something extra-special for you, Kagami," promised Marinette. Marinette couldn't wait to meet Kagami in person, though the two already became friends over video chat.

"Thank you, Marinette."

Marinette smiled brightly at her new friend, then turned to her two friends who were attending the sleepover in person. Chloé had the trapdoor open and was tossing cookies downstairs to be lost. Nino was on his phone, the sort of on his face that he reserved for Jon and Jon only. "Nino, are you going to try anything?"

Nino glanced up from his phone. "Oh, I wasn't paying attention." He grabbed a chocolate chip cookie, taking a bite as he returned to his phone.

"Too busy texting Jon to spend time with us?" Marinette teased.

Nino flushed, setting his phone down. "Sorry, we're both excited about the trip."

"You don't need to apologize. I'm excited, too." The plane to Gotham was leaving at midnight, only twenty-four hours away, and Marinette, Nino, and Chloé would all be on it. In less than two days, all teens would get to meet their Soulmates for the first time.

"What's the first thing you're going to do when you finally meet Damian?" Nino asked.

Marinette shrugged. "I don't know. Should I know? Should I be planning for our meeting, or just do whatever feels natural? What if he sees me and I'm not what he expected? What if he's disappointed? What if-"

Chloé pressed her hand over Marinette's mouth, stopping Marinette's anxious babbling in its tracks. "Stop worrying so much. You aren't meeting a stranger, you're meeting your _Soulmate_, who you talk to _literally_ all the time. Just act natural."

"But-"

"Don't overthink it," Chloé advised.

Marinette nodded. Chloé always gave good advice. "You're right. I shouldn't be overthinking our first meeting. Damian and I already know each other. We're already friends."

"_Friends_," Chloé hands moved to finger quote the word. "You two talk constantly. How are you not dating yet?"

With a shrug, Marinette answered. "We've never really talked about it. He's never brought it up, so I assume that he's not interested. We're still pretty young, and it's not uncommon to wait until you're both older to start dating. He probably wants to date other people for a while before he goes into a serious relationship."

Over the camera, Adrien narrowed his eyes in skepticism. "But is that what you want?" asked Adrien. It was less of a question and more of a statement, as everyone already knew exactly how Marinette felt about Damian.

Marinette stared down at her hands. "No," she said quietly, "I want to have a relationship with Damian, I really do. I just don't want him to feel stifled. If he wants to date other people, then I'll accept it. I don't want him to get into a relationship with me just because he feels like he has to. I don't want him to resent me."

"Unless Damian is a fool, he will not resent you for speaking your mind," Kagami advised.

"Kagami is right," said Chloé. "You have to tell him what you want when you want it. Communication is key for relationships."

Marinette's anxiety over messing up her relationship with Damian was too great to be overcome by simple logic. While she knew that Chloé's advice was correct, she couldn't bring herself to accept it. "He's never shown any sign that he wants to date me. I don't want to spring it on him out of the blue."

"He's bringing you to his brother's wedding as his date. How is that not clear enough for you?"

"He invited me as his Soulmate, not as his date. I mean, J.T. did the same thing for you, Chloé."

"The reason J.T. invited me as his Soulmate rather than as his date is that we both agreed that we weren't going to attempt a relationship until I turn 18, next September. Our situations are radically different, Marinette."

"How about this," suggested Nino. "We'll flip a coin. If it lands heads up, you have to make the first move on Damian. If it lands heads down, you can wait for Damian to make the first move, and none of us will bother you about it until after our trip to Gotham. Does that sound fair?"

Marinette nodded, "That sounds fair."

Nino pulled a coin out of his pocket and tossed it in the air. Marinette willed her miraculous luck to help her out in that moment. The coin landed.

"Heads up." Chloé's smile was so smug it was almost painful to look at. "And I know the perfect way for you to show him how you feel."

Marinette knew better than to try and argue with Chloé. "What's your idea."

"You walk right up to him and without saying anything, just kiss him."

"No," Marinette spluttered. "I can't just walk up to him and kiss him without saying anything first."

"Fine," Chloé conceded. "You walk right up to him, tell him that you've been in love with him for years and _then_ you kiss him. The kissing is non-negotiable."

"No fair. You aren't making Nino kiss Jon," complained Marinette.

"Chloé doesn't have to worry about Jon and I kissing," Nino piped up. "

"Alright, I'll kiss Damian. However, you have to give me a little time to do it."

"How about..." Chloé thought it over. "You have to do it before we leave the airport to go to his house."

Marinette was certain that she could have pressed for a better offer, but she knew that in the end whether she kissed Damian two minutes after they met or two hours after they met, it wasn't going to change the fact that she was kissing him at their very first meeting. "I agree to your terms."

"Shake on it." Chloé held out her hand, and Marinette shook it.

"Chloé, it's your job to catch their first kiss on video," said Adrien. "If I don't have the chance to experience the first kiss in person, I at least want to see it secondhand."

"Make sure you send all the Daminette videos to Kim, Kagami, and I, too," piped up Alix.

"I can't believe you guys," Marinette laughed. "You gave Damian and I a ship name!"

"If it makes you feel any better, we made a valiant attempt to give ship names to all three of you, but Daminette was the only one that we came to a consensus on," said Alix. "The best we could come up with for Nino and Jon was Jonino, and we're waiting to learn J.T.'s real name to ship him and Chloé."

Marinette laughed. She loved her friends. They were so supportive of her, pushing her to be her best self. 

Eventually, Kim, Alix, and Kagami left the call, as they had a full day planned in Kyoto. Adrien hung up just a few minutes after them, as he had to start getting ready for bed. His Father allowed Adrien to video chat with his friends after his modeling duties were fulfilled, but if it started interfering with Adrien's sleep schedule, leading to telltale dark circles under his eyes, Adrien's laptop would surely be taken away from him.

Marinette, Chloé, and Nino went to bed a few hours later, but despite Marinette's exhaustion, she couldn't fall asleep. A thought had been bothering her for weeks - she was going to have to keep the fact that she was Ladybug a secret from Damian. Marinette loathed the idea of secrets between her and her Soulmate, but Tikki had already made it very clear to Marinette that revealing her identity wasn't a decision to be made lightly. Marinette needed to truly know Damian before she could tell him about the Miraculous.

In a way, Marinette was a little bit jealous of Chat Noir. He didn't have a Soulmate, so he didn't have to deal with the stress of keeping his secret identity a secret from them. However, Marinette knew better than to not appreciate what she had. She loved Damian, and she wouldn't give him up for anything, even if it meant she had to keep some parts of her life a secret from him for the time being.

—————————————————————— 

Marinette watched the ground get further and further away as the plane to Gotham took flight. Anxiety bubbled up in her, but it wasn't caused by the flight or the heights. She was nervous to meet Damian, and despite all the reassurances that her friends gave to her, Marinette couldn't seem to shake the anxiety deep within her that he would find her lacking in some way.

"I wish I could text Damian," Marinette sighed, staring longingly at her phone, which she had turned onto airplane mode as soon as she stepped onto the plane. 

"Don't worry, Marinette. You'll get to speak to him in person in seven hours," Nino reassured.

Marinette nodded, but she still felt restless. As soon as the overhead light to stay in the seats turned off, Marinette was heading to the on-plane restroom to pen Damian a note. She had enough paper in her pocket for three notes, but every time she drafted one, it came out wrong. The first sounded needy, the second sounded impersonal, and the third sounded just plain pathetic. Marinette threw each of them away in the bathroom trash can, making sure she watched where they landed so that there was no chance that Damian would find them by mistake.

Marinette returned to her seat, yawning as she greeted Nino. He had his headphones on and was listening to music. Chloé was curled up in the seat across the aisle, fast asleep, her sleep mask covering her eyes. She buckled back in and got comfortable, hoping to get a few hours of sleep before the plane landed. The gentle humming of the plane engine and the quiet music coming through her headphones was enough of a distraction that Marinette began to forget about her worries. Despite her anxiety, she was exhausted enough that it took her no time at all to fall asleep.

Marinette woke as the plane was landing, Nino gently prodding her arm. "Wake up, Marinette. We're in Gotham."

Marinette blinked her tired eyes open. "Already?" She yawned out the word. Marinette hadn't intended to sleep for all seven hours of the plane ride. She wanted at least a few minutes to try and conquer her pesky anxiety, but now it seemed that she would be jumping straight into the deep end. As she looked out the window, Marinette could see the twinkling lights of downtown Gotham, just a few miles away from the airport, trying for a moment to forget that she would be meeting her Soulmate in just a few minutes.

As she pulled her carry-on bag out of the overhead compartment, Chloé turned to face Marinette. "Remember what you promised to do," Chloé reminded in a teasing manner.

Marinette nodded. "I remember."

Marinette's spiking anxiety must have shown on her face, as Chloé immediately looked guilty. "You know, you don't have to kiss Damian if you don't feel comfortable doing it. I just wanted to help you take the first step in your relationship. I don't want you to get hurt."

Marinette took one deep breath, then another. "I will do it. I have to take the first step now, or I'll waste the whole trip second-guessing myself." Everything was going to be fine. She just had to get off the plane.

They filed out of the plane and walked towards the terminal, Nino in front, then Chloé, with Marinette bringing up the rear. With only seconds to go before she was to lay eyes on Damian, Marinette tried to picture him in her find. There were some features that she instinctively knew that she would see - soft dark hair, warm green eyes, and strong arms to hold her. 

As Marinette walked into the airport terminal, immediately locking eyes with Damian. He was so unbelievable perfect, Marinette couldn't help the smile that overtook her face. Five years had led to this. Exactly five years and two weeks since the moment Marinette first found that knife underneath her bed, she looked her Soulmate in the eyes for the first time. It was the most amazing feeling in the world. He looked at her like she was the most beautiful thing in the world, like she was a sprawling garden or a crystal clear ocean or the starry night sky. Damian looked at her with so much love in his eyes, Marinette felt her racing heartbeat start to calm. She walked towards him, knowing exactly what to do.

"Hello, Damian," Marinette greeted, her smile growing.

Damian smiled back. "Hello, Marinette. It's nice to finally meet you."

"It's nice to meet you, too. I know it's a little late, but I have one last birthday gift to give to you."

This was the moment of truth. Before he could ask her further question, but giving him enough time to stop the kiss if that wasn't what he wanted, Marinette leaned forward on her tiptoes, bridging the eight-inch height difference, and pressed a kiss to his lips.

It was her first kiss and it was perfect. Just like Marinette read in books and heard in songs, it was a rush of emotion that was so powerful, Marinette never wanted it to end. His lips were soft and warm, and in her eagerness, Marinette, inexperienced in kissing, accidentally scraped her teeth against them. Damian let out a sharp breath, then started kissing her back, snaking his hands behind her back to hold her, gently lifting her to bring her closer to his lips.

Marinette could've kept kissing Damian forever, but the sound of Chloé's muffled laughter brought Marinette back down to Earth. In an instant, she remembered that she and Damian were in public, in the middle of the airport, with Marinette's two best friends, Damian's best friend, and Damian's brother all watching. Marinette broke away from the kiss. "Hi," Marinette said breathlessly, gazing up at him with bright eyes.

Damian grinned like the cat that got the cream, as he teased, "Thank you for the gift."

Marinette blushed furiously, realizing exactly what she had done. "I- I thought that we should get it out of the way right at the beginning, whether or not we want to start our relationship now or wait a few years. As you can probably deduce, my vote is for starting it now."

Damian leaned down towards Marinette and pressed another kiss to her lips, less passionate than the first, but just as lovely. "I think we're in agreement. I would like you to come to Richard's wedding with me, not only as my date but also as my girlfriend."

"I would love that." Marinette placed her hand in his and squeezed. "I'm so happy to finally meet you face to face."

"It's been a long time coming," Damian agreed. "Five years."

"Five years and two weeks exactly, since the day that..." Marinette's voice trailed off, unsure of how to bring up the subject of the knife. Marinette had a vague memory of herself promising Nino, Kim, and Alix that she would confront her Soulmate about the subject when she first met him. Eventually, Marinette decided to rip off the bandaid in one go and just confront it head-on. "Since the day that I found the knife."

"I will explain that, but not tonight. It's a long story, and we have to get back to the house. I promise I will explain everything tomorrow."

Marinette nodded. "I've waited five years and two weeks, I can wait a few more hours." 

"Damian!" The man standing next to Chloé called out. "Are you going to introduce your girlfriend to us, or are you going to keep kissing her. I'm getting a little tired of waiting. None of us are getting any younger here."

Chloé elbowed him in the side. "Ignore Jason, he's being an asshole on purpose."

Damian, however, didn't seem at all bothered by Jason's words. He gently brought one arm around her shoulders. "Todd, Jon, this is my girlfriend, Marinette."

Marinette smiled at Jason and Jon. "It's nice to finally meet you."

"It's nice to meet you too, Marinette. I have just one question though. Do you know Chloé?"

"It's kind of a long story. Could we explain in the car?" Marinette asked.

Jason shrugged. "I won't be driving home with you, so how about you explain it over breakfast tomorrow?"

"What do you mean you won't be driving home with them?" asked Chloé, narrowing her eyes accusatorially.

"I have to stop at my apartment and pick up some things before I come back to stay at the Manor. Don't worry, I'm not ditching you just yet."

Chloé rolled her eyes, but Marinette could tell that she had been genuinely worried. Having a mother like Audrey Bourgeoise would give anyone abandonment issues. 

They all got their luggage, then walked from the airport terminal to the car, parked in the parking lot outside. Marinette and Damian held hands the whole way there, Marinette pressing her body into his side as they walked. After five years of separation, Marinette was desperate for some physical intimacy.

Damian got into the driver's seat of the car, but not before opening up the passenger door for Marinette. "Thank you," Marinette said, giving him her brightest smile.

The drive home was quiet, as everyone was too tired for any in-depth conversation. Nino was sleeping on Jon's shoulder in the back seats, while Chloé was typing rapid-speed on her phone, likely telling Adrien and the rest of the group chat about Marinette and Damian's first kiss. 

Marinette stared wide-eyed out the window, trying to take everything in as they drove through the brightly-lit streets of downtown Gotham. Skyscrapers loomed overhead, the distinctive gothic architecture. Even at two AM, the streets of Gotham were bright and busy. Massive screens illuminated the streets with advertisements. People bustled around underneath, as if unaware that two AM was supposed to be the dead of night. The city had so much energy, it was hard to believe that it was the crime capital of the world. Marinette had expected dark, foreboding alleyways and sketchy characters lurking on every street corner.

"Gotham doesn't seem as bad as I anticipated," Marinette commented.

"It's not so bad in the heart of the city. The worst crime you'll experience in downtown Gotham is pickpockets and purse stealers. Once you get into the less wealthy parts of Gotham, that's where the worst of the crime takes place," Damian answered. 

Marinette let out a hum of acknowledgment, which quickly turned into a yawn. Though it would be seven AM in Paris, she had adjusted her sleeping schedule to the point that her body knew that it was the middle of the night. "How soon until we get to your house?"

"We'll arrive at Wayne Manor in approximately half an hour."

A realization shocked Marinette out of her tired state. "_Wayne_ Manor? As in _Bruce Wayne!?_"

Damian winced. "Bruce Wayne is my father."

"Your father is the billionaire owner of Wayne Industries." Marinette could barely believe it. She knew that Damian came from a fairly wealthy family, as he often got her expensive gifts and the car he was driving (though Marinette didn't know cars very well) appeared to be from a luxury brand, but Marinette never expected that Damian was the son of a billionaire.

"Yes." Damian glanced at Marinette. "I know I should have told you earlier, but I wasn't sure how to break the news. Are you upset?"

Marinette shook her head. "I'm not upset, just overwhelmed. What if..." Marinette's voice trailed off. "Do you think that your family will like me?"

"Of course they'll like you. Timothy already believes that you must be a saint, the way you're able to put up with me."

Marinette smiled, reassured by his words. "How fancy is the wedding going to be? I designed a dress myself for the occasion, but I'm not sure if it'll be nice enough for such an expensive wedding."

Damian shook his head. "The wedding will be a small ceremony, in the Wayne Manor gardens, with the reception directly preceding it in the Manor ballroom."

"I'll have to show you my dress tomorrow," decided Marinette.

"If you designed it yourself, I'm sure it will be perfect."

The car started leaving the downtown of the city, traveling down the highway for a while before pulling off onto a dark lane that wound its way through a forest. They drove for almost ten minutes, past houses that got progressively larger and progressively farther apart until Damian pulled up to a gated driveway. He pressed a button on the dashboard and the gates opened up. Marinette couldn't help but be impressed by the show of wealth. As the car made its way up the long driveway, Marinette waited for the house to come into view. She knew that it would be large - it was called Wayne _Manor_, after all - but the knowledge didn't prepare her for the massive mansion that sat on the top of the hill. Though it was difficult to see through the dark, Marinette could tell that it was beautiful. Wayne Manor was a stunning example of gothic architecture, more like something out of a nineteenth-century romance novel than an actual house that people lived in.

"Wow," Marinette breathed out the word, stunned.

Damian got out of the car and opened up Marinette's door for her. "Welcome to Wayne Manor."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have good news! I'm writing a spin-off fic to _Lost and Found!_ The fic, titled _Highs and Lows_ will focus on Jason and Chloé's relationship. The first chapter will be posted on Wednesday May 6th.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Comments are appreciated :)


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